Wakes every night and talks for 2+ hours!!!

My 18mth old son has always been an excellent sleeper but in the last month he has been waking almost every night at around 2am chatting and laughing and screaming(occasionally). This goes on for at least 2 hours and he finally settles to sleep. We try not to go in to him but after 1 hour of being kept awake we usually resort to a bottle and some bonjela ( thinking it may be teeth). He rarely settles after this and continues to chat to himself and bang the cot. Most of the time when I go in he is standing up wide awake!! Should we just leave him to settle completely by himself without bottles etc.

Hi,
I wouldn't give him the bottle when he wakes or this may become the nightly habit and you don't want that.
But I would do some settling techniques rather than just leaving him, this will let him know that it's NOT okay to be doing this in the middle of the night, if you just let him go he will think that it's okay with you. When he wakes give him just 10 mins to see if he resettles himself and then go in and 'butt in' on his playtime (even if this gets him crying a bit) lay him down facing away from you and let him know it's time to sleep.

You can get full details for our settling techniques from <a href="http://www.huggies.com/au/pregnancy_parenting/yourbabysleep/">Your Baby’s Sleep</a> page.

Cheers Maree

Gee Iam pleased Iam not the only one, my son is 24 months and the last week or so has been doing same thing. I agree dont give him bottle as he should not need this now and may be the reason hes waking knowing he will get the bottle.
I have tried the settling and it doen't work for my son but he is getting his 2 yr molders so Iam putting it down to this hopefully will grow out of it soon