3.5 Year Old Waking at 2Am to Play

Yes, it's a phase.
Both my kids have gone though this.
It will pass, and it will go back to normalcy.

really, he is not doing this on purpose to irk you... main thing is he does go back to sleep on his own, and can entertain himself, safely in his own room.
Which is good.

Would you rather him be needy and crying at each waking and THEN come barging in on you in your bed, and screaming for you to play with him? So, be glad he is just in his room, playing with his toys by himself. He is showing self-motivation and self reliance.

It's all about ages & stages. Lots more will come.
They are just changing so much internally... 3 yrs. old is a hard age anyway. It's much harder for the CHILD to adjust too, versus the parent. THEY are the one's changing... growing pains.

All the best, take it with a grain of salt.
It'll be okay and your son is normal.
~Susan

Hi M.,

My daughter who will be 4 next Friday, does this every once in a while. What I have done, and this is probably going to sound mean to some of the parents out there. But before I go to bed, I put a child gate up so she can't get into the living room. I also put one up on my bathroom. The only places in the house that she has access to is her room, my room, and her bathroom (since she is potty trained). I've made sure that there is nothing in her room that she can get hurt on. When she gets up in the middle of the night, she just plays in her room until she is ready to go to sleep again.

I use to leave the monitor on so I could hear what was going on in her room. I was doing the same thing. Waking up at 2am at any little noise I would hear. I wasn't getting any sleep, and she was fine. My suggestion, only use the monitor when your son is sick. The rest of the time, leave it off. Have trust in yourself that you have "baby proofed" your son's room, and he won't get hurt.

Good luck!

L.

Here's a quick idea, just turn off the monitor. If he's not getting into things he shouldn't (food in the kitchen, making a mess in the living room... ) and isn't in danger of getting hurt, who cares what his sleep habits are? My little guy would be up for hours in the night too, but he wanted company from me or dad.... not fun. This went on for several months when he was about 18mths old and again in the months just before and after his 3rd birthday. Now two months before his fourth birthday he goes to bed relatively easily and sleeps through the night (8pm to 7am) every night. Just get through it as calmly as you can, this will probably go away on it's own, and the bigger deal you make of it the bigger deal he'll make of it. I know it's hard to act like a normal loving mother in the middle of the night when you're tired and irritated, just breathe and remember all the reasons you love him so much... and turn off the monitor :)

There is nothing out of the ordinary here. I have four, and several of mine did this. You need to minimize the situation instead of dramatizing it by yelling and getting irritated. Motherhood is 24/7. From what you describe, he only disrupts your night for a few minutes. The rest of the time you are disrupting your own sleep by using the baby monitor. As long as your home is safe, he cannot get out, and he is not endangering himself, let him be. He will grow out of it. Consider revamping any napping he may still be doing. It may be time to do away with naptime.

He will out grow it. My son did this for a long time. I would always go down stairs with him and fall back to sleep on the couch while he played quietly then he would get tired and lay down and go to sleep. I wouldn't make a big deal about it. I would turn off the monitor and go back to sleep or lay in his room so you have the ability to monitor him if you are afraid he may get into something. A mom's job is never done.. Good luck

If he's turning on the lights, remove his light bulbs from the lights. If he can't see his toys, he'll be less likely to play. You could also threaten to take his favorite toys away if he does this.

It must be something in the water because my daughter has done the EXACT same thing for the past 3-4 nights!! LOL Except she wakes up around 3am. I hope it's just a phase! It makes me nuts too because I have to stay with her since she's only 20 months and I don't really trust her to stay up alone. I'll be sitting there with her (half asleep) trying to calmly explain to her "look, it's dark out. That means it time to sleep, NOT time to play"... She just looks at me like "yeah whatever mom, I wanna play".
My friend suggested waking her up a little earlier than usual from her nap to make sure she is extra sleepy at bed time and sleeps through the night, so that's what I'm gonna try... I'll let you know if it works!