Kid waking up in the middle of the night

My little girl is going to be 4 years old very soon, but she still wakes up in the middle of the night very often, almost every night.

Besides taking care of my children, I am also a freelance programmer, hence I always sleep together with them at night, and wake up in the middle of the night, so that I can do some work while they are still sleeping. My girl doesn't wake up when I get up, but she always has the habit of waking up. She'd sometimes cry for me when she doesn't find me in the bed, or she'd sometimes go downstairs and look for me. I also realize that even if I sleep beside her, she might also wake up in the middle of the night, but when she knows I am beside her, then she'll either hug me or continue to sleep.

Do you have any kids who wake up in the middle of the night often? Do you have any way to help them sleeping through the night?

I used to be like your little girl; I was a light sleeper and would wake up like two to three times before sunrise.
Your girl might just be naturally that way but you could engage her in physical activities before she goes to bed so that she can be tired. When I am very tired, I sleep through the night. I still wake up from time to time every night as an adult; I guess it's our nature.
I hope this helps a bit.

Every child has sleeping issues, at least mine did and I have heard a lot of the same things from other parents, and I would say that it comes down to ensuring they feel safe to stay in bed and fall back asleep. Our oldest had a lot of trouble getting to sleep when he was young, so we battled that one, and as long as it does not affect them substantially hopefully it phases out.

darkchild said:
I used to be like your little girl; I was a light sleeper and would wake up like two to three times before sunrise.
Your girl might just be naturally that way but you could engage her in physical activities before she goes to bed so that she can be tired. When I am very tired, I sleep through the night. I still wake up from time to time every night as an adult; I guess it's our nature.
I hope this helps a bit.

Thank you for your reply, and yes, this really helps me.
I am already trying to make her feel secured since she was born, and I also make sure she has enough movements in the day time. Sometimes I doubt if I haven't do enough. I was also wondering if this is just her nature. I am a person who can really sleep well throughout the night, just same as my elder son.

So, perhaps it's just her nature.

@rz3300 Thanks for your reply. Yes, I agree that every child has his own sleeping issues, both of mine have theirs. My elder son has already phased out and he can fall asleep on his own now. I hope my little girl will get to sleep well soon too, so she can get good sleep at night.

Hi!

This is also a problem of mine. My son is already two years old and he still wakes up two to three times a night. I keep him busy throughout the day. Take him for a walk during the afternoon for about one to two hours. I let him play with his cousin and our neighbours as well. I read to him, play with him and make sure he eats a lot during the day and two hours before sleeping. I make him drink some fresh milk at night as well. We still breastfeed though so it's easy to put him back to sleep.

Problem is, like you, I also work at night. And whenever he doesn't see me beside him, he would wake up and cry for me. If I get there on time, he would breastfeed and sleep immediately. But if his cry wakes him up, even though I breastfeed him, he would be awake for a few hours. And this really damages his sleeping cycle as well as my work.

So most of the time, I let him sleep even for as late as 12 AM. This way, he'd be so tired that he will have undisrupted sleep. But believe it or not, he still wakes up sometimes even with this strategy. I think not having me beside him makes his sleep lighter. Kids have very high senses and they could feel if we're not beside them.

I tried putting my worn t-shirt beside him but yeah it doesn't work anymore. Lol. I cannot work beside him though because the radiation from the laptop might have some harmful effects on him.

missiemouse said:
Hi!

This is also a problem of mine. My son is already two years old and he still wakes up two to three times a night. I keep him busy throughout the day. Take him for a walk during the afternoon for about one to two hours. I let him play with his cousin and our neighbours as well. I read to him, play with him and make sure he eats a lot during the day and two hours before sleeping. I make him drink some fresh milk at night as well. We still breastfeed though so it's easy to put him back to sleep.

Problem is, like you, I also work at night. And whenever he doesn't see me beside him, he would wake up and cry for me. If I get there on time, he would breastfeed and sleep immediately. But if his cry wakes him up, even though I breastfeed him, he would be awake for a few hours. And this really damages his sleeping cycle as well as my work.

So most of the time, I let him sleep even for as late as 12 AM. This way, he'd be so tired that he will have undisrupted sleep. But believe it or not, he still wakes up sometimes even with this strategy. I think not having me beside him makes his sleep lighter. Kids have very high senses and they could feel if we're not beside them.

I tried putting my worn t-shirt beside him but yeah it doesn't work anymore. LOL. I cannot work beside him though because the radiation from the laptop might have some harmful effects on him.

Your son's sleeping habit really sounds like my daughter, except my daughter can easily sleep back after I get back to her.

My daughter actually wakes up less often after I stopped breastfeeding her at 2.5 years old. I was considering if I should continue to breastfeed, but it seems like she's been waking up too frequently and it might not be good for her health, so I decided to wean her off. She really woke up less frequently as compared to previously, perhaps once at night, or sometimes she doesn't wake up till the morning.

I used to just work in the next room, so whenever I can hear her started to cry or I knew she was about to wake up, I quickly went back to the room and comforted her, then she could get back to sleep easier. Are you using your laptop to work? I understand it's not good to work in the same room as the child, perhaps just outside the room or next door?

Now that my daughter is almost 4 years old, and before she sleeps, I told her that if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she can just come downstairs and look for me, as I will always be there, and not anywhere else. This technique seems to work sometimes, though she might still wake up in the middle of the night, she doesn't always cry loudly as she knows I am just nearby, she'd just come to look for me or call me from the staircase.

Perhaps like darkchild said, some people are just light sleeper, by nature.

One of my close friends has a daughter who has trouble sleeping and they actually got a white noise machine for her room. It seems to have helped them drastically - their daughter is getting more sleep and as a consequence so are they as parents! So maybe something like that could help, just something to generate some background noise to assist with sleep?