Our 2 1/2 year old daughter just woke up sobbing after a few hours of sleep, so I broke out my full arsenal of singing, back patting and other desperation tactics and none of them worked at all.

Finally I offered to get her some more milk for the 10th time and somehow that seemed to register and she stopped crying. By the time I had left the room to get more milk, she was already asleep. So I didn't bother getting her the milk and it's been 10 minutes of silence since then. I think she just passed back out.

Does your toddler ever wake up crying in the middle of the night? How do you calm them down?