Premature - Almost 2yr girl (crying and whining during sleep)

Question

My preemie (3 months early) girl is almost 2yrs old now. She's tiny compared to her older sister who was 3 months past due, but completely healthy.

My little one has started to cry-then-whine about 2-3 times per night (last around 5 mins), and then be completely awake at 5:30am. She goes to bed at around 6:30-7pm every night. Has a solid 1-2hr nap at daycare (completely uninterrupted).

During the nightly whining, she does not wake up at all. She tosses and turns, falls out of the bed and sleeps on the floor, sideways in bed, I mean if she could she would sleep on the ceiling. She is in her teething stage right now and just started to walk a bit more than a month ago (she's almost running now). She also does a lot of baby talk (seems like she's thinking about what to say, but can't just yet). Her psychological functions are there: recognizes actions and objects, cleans after herself - sees her older sister do it, and repeats it, runs for hugs, etc.

I just don't know what to do to have her sleep normally. This started around the same time as teething, 2-3 months ago (mind you, she's getting a lot of teeth much sooner than her older sister did).

• Concerned Father aka. only male in the house next to the intact dog whose a suck for girls

Answer 1

What you interpret as a problem might be just fine.

Even if you consider what you describe to be "a problem", refrain from relating it to premature birth. Prematurely born kids are known to be more likely to develop problems than other kids but not every problem they have is necessarily due to it.

You describe a very healthy little girl developing just like one would expect it! . She's "completely healthy", "has solid, completely uninterrupted naps", "does a lot of baby talk", "runs for hugs" aso. Like any kid that age, she "tosses and turns" in sleep. I suggest you concentrate on this and much less on the fact she was born prematurely.

My daughter is a few months older than yours and had episodes of night whining too that naturally disappeared after a while. She also had a very long episode (4-5 weeks) of sleep coughing. That did not wake her up, just like yours, and that did not visibly tire her either, so why worry?

Like we sometimes did with our daughter, seek professional advice if you wish to make sure it really isn't anything serious. And if it really isn't, then let your daughter be and it will go eventually. Kids have such phases that come and go.

Sometimes there is only a problem in the fact we think there is a problem.
Try focusing more on the positive, less on the negative.

On a side note, I think she shouldn't "fall out of the bed and sleep on the floor". It's ok to try to have her sleep without side bars but if she keeps falling, step back for a while. She might not be ready yet.