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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Need HELP Please!!
elle73 01:01 PM 02-24-2012
Hi everyone, I need some help or advice!!! My 3yr old son has not slept through the night for about 2months now and my husband and I are starting to feel extremely burnt out.

We have had alot of changes happen since October of last year, I closed down my daycare and we moved across the country to be closer to my family, the move was pretty difficult for my son and he had a hard time adjusting, BUT he was sleeping through the night just fine, then he started waking up during the night most nights with night terrors(he had them before we moved but not very frequently)and some nights he just calls out to us, and it happens every night between 1am and 2am, and during the day he is just miserable. He has always had a very good night time routine and doesn't have a problem falling asleep. I finally called the DR and have an appointment for him next Friday, but I thought I would come on here and see if anyone has been through this or has any advice.

Thanks
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grandmom 01:59 PM 02-24-2012
3 huh?

First make sure the doctor doesn't have any concerns.

So you didn't mention what happens when he wakes up.

At the risk of sounding really harsh...

Has this just become a habit? Does he get attention (good or bad it really doesn't matter) for waking up? Food? Water? Sleep with you? Rocking? If he does get anything other than a quick you're fine ninight, I'd take away the reward.

It will kill your heart to walk away from him, but if it's a habit you want to break, you'll need to do something drastic and firm. Sorry.

Good luck.
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bice99 02:21 PM 02-24-2012
Might not be night terrors. Might be arousal confusion - if he wears socks to bed, don't let him anymore. If he doesn't, uncover his feet at night. If he gets tangled in the sheets, it can create this problem. My DD had it from 18 months until 3 1/2 y/o. Dr said she would outgrow it. I googled it because that last summer, it was happening 1-2 times per night for 3 weeks straight. We had moved her to a "big girl" bed and she had jersey knit sheets. Once we took the top one off and just put a light blanket on her (not tucked in), it never happened again. She's almost 10 now.
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Childminder 02:43 PM 02-24-2012
Try a sound machine. White noise works wonders. Also try letting self soothe for a few nights, he's old enough to give him warning or just go to his door and tell him to calm himself.
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elle73 03:19 PM 02-24-2012
Well he's never had any issues sleeping before, like I said he had night terrors before but not very often, he has always slept in his own bed all night. when its night terrors he is screaming but still sleeping, so I just lay him back down in his bed and the only thing I can do is let him scream because if I try to soothe him or wake him up he screams even louder and eventually he settles down, we've noticed in the past 2months as well that he has started sitting up and talking in his sleep and I've also found him standing next to his bed and his sisters bed screaming and again he is still asleep, a few times I've waken up to him standing in our bedroom eyes closed, so I just put him back in his bed. On the nights that he actually wakes up I used to be able to tuck him back into bed and just walk away, but now he will start whining and sometimes crying, he doesn't ask for anything and I don't bring him into our bed(we learned our lesson on that with our daughter lol), I don't rock him, I might shush him for a couple of min until he is quiet and even then sometimes that doesn't work.

He was always a good sleeper, he would fall asleep right away and slept through the night until we moved, this hasn't been an issue before. The majority of the time its the night terrors.
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familyschoolcare 05:24 PM 02-24-2012
when he talks in his sleep waht does he say?

Start writing down what he says. Even, if it does not make sense. You might see a patteren of cetain words that would give you a clue if it is stress rlated as to what it is.
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Tags:3 year old, burnt out, won't sleep
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