Help -- Kitten is bugging me all night long!

We got our 16 week old kitten four days ago. Up until last night we slept with out door closed. The cat up until a few days ago was afraid to come upstairs anyway. My husband is not comfortable with this because our he feels we might now hear our 4 and 6 year old kids if they need us during the night.

So... left the door open last night. If I got 5 HOURS of sleep I'd be shocked. Within a half and hour the kitten was in the bed walking around, purring non-stop and finally settled on my pillow above my head. By 5:30am he was again walking all over me purring like mad, occasionally attacking my hands. He pretty much left my husband alone (probably the snoring).

Anyhow, I am thinking we are just going to have to shut the door again. I am afraid now that he knows what he is missing he will scratch and cry a the door. What do I do then? Lock him up in the large guest bathroom at night? I hate to do that because he is used to his litterpan being a certain place and dont' want to have to start using two of them now. At his foster home the couple shut their door at night but the kitten had his littermates to play with.

PS: This little guy is just the most sweetest loverboy of a cat. I am home all day and he gets non-stop attention from me and my children.

PSS: Please don't say "get another kitten" because that is out of the question.

Weve all been there so we know the feeling.

Your getting purrs so this kitten loves you! I let my girls sleep in my bedroom, but when i'm at work they stay in the guest room because of my alarm system downstairs.

If you can't have him in the room with you and the bathroom is large enough for the little one to play about in, along with plenty of room for his food, water and litter tray then that's no problem, but i hate to see them on their own like that

Have you tried playing with him about an hour before you go to bed to tire him out?. Do that along with a bit wet food and he'll be counting the zzzzzzzz before you know it.

He's like this because of his age, and like babies who sometimes wake up every 2 hours, get fed and fall straight back asleep, so it's no different really, but they do grow out of it

If I ever got five hours of sleep I'd be thrilled.

He's just being a kitten. It is totally normal for a kitten to have a big surge of activity at night.
With a 4 and a 6 year old you actually have an ace in the hole- use them to keep that kitten awake and playing from late afternoon until their bedtime. Then you and husband keep him awake until you get ready for bed, and feed him a good meal right before you go to sleep.

It will calm down as he gets older.

We're going through this right now too. The thing that works best is playing with Anya a lot right before bedtime. We have a feather wand and she runs around like crazy chasing it for almost an hour or more. We make sure she has plenty of dry food and water so she won't wake us up for that, and we keep some cool (not too noisy) toys near our bed so maybe when she gets the urge to play she'll play with those and not our heads. Last night I woke up a coupe of times with her attacking the mylar balloon in our bedroom. Better that than my head.

When she does finally wake us up bouncing around our bed at 5 or 6 am, I tell her no a few times, but usually end up plopping her outside and shutting the door. Better shut out for just an hour or two than all night long. Some nights she doesn't even wake us though.

I didn't get much sleep for the first year we had Emily when she was a kitten. Luckily I was in college and could deal with not much sleep.

Originally Posted by Cearbhaill

It will calm down as he gets older.

Click to expand...

Please come over and tell my boys that!

To the OP: You have good advice here...Wear him out before your bedtime and offer some warmed up wet food and this may grant you some more sleep!

You need to turn him around to your schedule.

Whenever I get a new cat or kitten I make sure it's on days that I'm off work. Then I take one night to see what it's sleep pattern is, and if it's nocturnal and awake at night wanting to play etc, then the next day I keep it up as much as I can during the day. If I see it sleeping I go and cuddle and play with it. By the time night time comes and I'm ready for bed, the poor thing is falling asleep sitting up. But it works