26 Month Old Waking up AGAIN!

Is it possible he's getting his 2 year molars? My 24 month old is working on them right now and it's been really hard on him. He's cranky and has been waking up at night. Giving him Tylenol seems to help. I know a few other moms of 2 year olds who are also having a hard time with this - those molars really put them through the wringer!

This may sound really weird but they may be going to bed too late. I would try to put your son to sleep a half hour earlier. My pediatrician says that "sleep promotes sleep". If you are interested in reading a very good book on children and sleep I would pick up Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. It is a very interesting book and it really works!

Someone should tell us that once we have kids we can pretty much bank on never sleeping through the night again! I have 3 kids and a husband and I swear, at least one of us is up every night for some reason or another!

Anyway, it sounds like your son might be having night terrors. My oldest used to have them and still will every once in a while. It usually happens within 2 hours of falling asleep and when you try to ask him what is wrong he just sobs uncontrollably and mumbles jibberish. It's because he is not actually awake even though he seems like he is. My advice is don't try to talk to him or rationalize with him and ask him what is wrong. When our son comes into our room in this state we just get up, turn him around, act like we understand what he saying, and get him back in his bed. He goes back to sleep without incident. But when we try to get him to talk to us he just gets really upset.

Hope that helps a little. Good luck.

My 21 month old son also have never been a great sleeper. He finally begain sleeping through the night around 16 months. I would suggest checking for an ear infection or his 2 year molars (if they haven't come in yet).

After my son started sleeping through the night, he immediately got an ear infection, that took 3 courses of antibiotics to clear, which took about 2 months!. He never really had a high fever with them, only got up to about 101.0 and he didn't really pull on his ears that much. The only way I knew was because he wouldn't sleep well, and would be so fussy when he woke up at night. He also has his molars coming in. With the ear infection, it would clear, the MD would say his ears looked fine, then within a week, he would be waking up again, inconsolable for hours each night. We had one weekend where he was up from midnight to 4 for three nights in a row! I feel your pain!
I would say, get his ears checked just to be sure. That is something that can be taken care of. If it's his molars, then they will eventually come in. Hang in there!

very good responses, the molar thing I second, check that. Try motrin instead of Tylenol, as it will help decrease the actualy swealing and tylerol wont, plus it last longer and is less harsh on the liver if you have to give regularly for a while.

Plus, don't over stimulate. At night keep is simple. No lights, no talking, maybe play a very soft CD of classical music or something in the backgroud. It's really hard to give advise on this becuase I don't know what "soothes" your child. One of mine, like being touched and rubs and the otehr just hates it.

If you can rule out any medical issue and you belive it to be behavorial then, I'm sorry but the crying thing might be your only option. Believe me, I know I hate it too and I tried everything, read everything and used it as a last resort, but after 3 - 4 days of really crapy sleep, hours of crying it did work on both my kids, and we sometimes have to revisit that technique (but only for one or two nights on a re-program) to establish a good sleep behavor.

I assume you are doing all the recomended pre-sleep routines, and going to bed at the same time, regular stuff. Otherwise - make sure to do that. Especially with it staying light longer the schedule is what kids grow to depend on to cue their body to go to sleep and stay asleep instead of assuming it's another nap. (which your child might be thinking it's nap time) I don't know just thougths.

Good luck, take naps if you can. And take care of yourself. Becuase a exhausted mom is hard to be as well. TAke care

i admit i'm spoiled because my son has been a good sleeper for us, but one thing i've done when he wakes up in the middle of the night, if it seems there's no real reason and he's not going back down - go in without talking to him, give him a small drink of milk, stay while he drinks it, stroking his back or hair or whatever, then when it's gone, take it and leave the room. don't turn any lights on, don't communicate with him, just let him know you're there. mine would go back down with relatively little fuss after that. he might be still getting used to the new baby and wanting some extra attention, especially if he can hear you getting up with the baby. doing this lets him know you're there and you love him, but nighttime is not play time or attention time - it's sleep time. good luck.

The responses so far are great. It may be he's getting too much rest or sugar during the day. Terrors and ear issues can also be culprits.

Hi A.,

The "uncontrollable crying" is something we also went through with our eldest son. After some time we realized he wasn't even awake while having these episodes. It happend (on average) once a week, and always when he had a very busy day, or was over-tired. I think it was some sort of night - terror. We tried everything from putting on his favorite video in the middle of the night, to letting him cry it out. They crying bit doesn't work for anyone. It just made all of us more upset. All I can tell you is that my son simply outgrew it. I wish I could give you the cure!

Best of luck,
T.