Calling All Mamas

I need some mommy advice.

For the last week Small Sun has been waking up at night. Nearly every night he has been getting up and doing one of several things:

-taking his pillow and blanket and sleeping in the hallway next to our door
-standing in the hallway crying
-standing in our room crying
-and last night I woke up at 5:30 to find him on his knees with his head stuck between The Captain's bedside and the bedside table.

In the past when he'd wake up he had lost his blankie or his sippie cup and after the items were restored he went quickly back to sleep on his own.

Currently he is freaking out and doesn't want us to leave him in his bed.

We've let him sleep on the floor next to our bed twice but we don't want that to become a permanent pattern.

There are a couple things that might be contributing to his night wakings. The first occurrence happened after his first day back at playschool with new teachers and new classmates and a hectic day. There has also been a creepy guy in the store incident, and someone visiting our house who was dealing with some large scale personal stuff that might have affected our little atmosphere. I have talked to him about each of these things and prayed over him as well.

So, what do you think is going on? What would you do? Shower me with your parenting wisdom.

I wouldn't feel bad just drawing the boundary and making him go back to bed if he didn't seem so freaked out at night. We can't really tell if he's all the way awake or not. Tonight I came home from the store to find him asleep on the hallway floor. Typically his night escapades don't begin until after about 12:30 pm. I put a night light in his room when I got home and I hope that helps...anyway, bring on your wisdom!

PS-did I mention we have all hardwoods? Here this little guy is sleeping on the hardwood, with no blanket! This has got to stop!

Comments

[Amie R]

I have zero parental advice. I think that talking to him, praying over him, and the night light are all great things.

I can think of behavior modification stuff to do, but I am not sure it would work if he is not really awake when he gets up. Visual cues of time to stay in bed, visual cues of how many times you are allowed to get out of bed, reward for not using your get out of bed free passes the next morning. I guess I don't know if you really need to go here yet.

I guess I would just try to lead him back to his room and comfort him there. It seems like you might be more in charge of the boundaries that way.

Hopefully, he is just scared of the dark and the night light fixes all. :)

[Tamara Cosby]

Not sure I am full of wisdom as we still have two that alternate waking up...for us, we instituted the gate at the door so at least when they awake, they are in their room and we are more inclined to put them back to bed. This might help him to know the boundaries of where he should sleep...and encourage him to vocalize his freakedoutedness (look mom I can make words)...I think praying over him as well as with him is a good idea...and prayers throughout the day about sleeping? Just a few thoughts from a mom still struggling with sleep herself...yes, it is 1:47am and two of mine have woken up tonight...granted, croup and tummy upset but still.

[caro.d]

We put the gate at E's door too. So that if he does get out of bed we don't have to worry about him getting into the bathroom, or falling down the stairs, etc. S.S. is also at the age where I've read that night terrors start. Looking like he's wide awake, but he's not. Unfortunately, if it is that, the only thing you can do (aside prayer) is to let it ride itself out. I might look into that, to see if any of the "symptoms" match up. peace!

[cloudscome]

I am reading "1,2,3 Magic" by Dr. Thomas Phelan lately. It is great for a lot of things. He says just keep leading them back to bed over and over until they get it. He says try to keep them sleepy by not turning on lights or talking too much. The website is http://www.parentmagic.com/

I have to say it's not working for my two year old though. Mine doesn't even come looking for me - he sees it as an opportunity for mischief and goes off to the kitchen to get into the cupboards. I am hoping to get some advice from everyone else too!

[Margie]

Our daughter was a real terror at night. Her bio clock never set to ET, and isn't there today still and she's 16 - left to her own devices she would sleep 2 AM to noon on a regular basis.

We tried gates - plural, because when she learned how to vault over one we had to stack another on top of it. We hated having to do that, it made her room feel like a jail, so we finally just took them down and let her call the shots for awhile.

The pattern that developed included (each month):

- Many nights of undisturbed sleep
- A few nights where she'd go into her brother's room and wake him up
- A few nights where she'd come into our room and wake us up.

We worked on keeping her out of her brother's room, but when she came to us would either let her into bed with us, or I would go back to her room with her. The rule was that as long as she let me sleep, she could play quietly. She would usually last no more than an hour, and then would fall asleep herself.

Whether we did the right thing or the wrong thing, I don't know, but it was manageable and gave her - and us - quite a few days of undisturbed sleep each month.

Good luck as you work through this, because I know how hard it is.