Не то чтобы мне легко вставать ночью, но я всё равно иду к ребёнку, когда он плачет.

This is a very common Russian pattern for softening what you say.

Не то чтобы X, но Y means something like:

• It’s not that X, but Y
• Not exactly X, but Y
• It’s not really that X; rather, Y

So here:

Не то чтобы мне легко вставать ночью, но я всё равно иду к ребёнку...

means roughly:

It’s not that getting up at night is easy for me, but I still go to the child...

The idea is:

• the speaker is not claiming that it is easy,
• but despite that, they still do it.

It sounds more natural and nuanced than a flat negative like Мне нелегко вставать ночью.

Because Russian often uses the pattern:

dative pronoun/noun + predicative word

to express how something feels to someone.

So:

• мне легко = it is easy for me
• мне трудно = it is difficult for me
• ему удобно = it is convenient for him
• нам интересно = it is interesting to us

Here, мне is in the dative case, because it marks the experiencer.

So:

• мне легко вставать ночью = it is easy for me to get up at night

If you said я легко встаю ночью, that would mean something more like:

• I get up easily at night

That is grammatical too, but it is a different structure and slightly different in focus.

This is an aspect question.

• вставать = imperfective
• встать = perfective

Here, the sentence is talking about a general, repeated situation: getting up at night as something that happens again and again.

So Russian prefers the imperfective:

• мне легко вставать ночью = it is easy for me to get up at night / getting up at night is easy for me

If you used встать, it would sound more like a single completed instance:

• мне легко встать ночью = it is easy for me to get up at night on one particular occasion

So вставать fits the meaning better because the sentence describes a recurring reality, not one one-time event.

Ночью is the instrumental case of ночь, and here it is being used adverbially, meaning:

• at night
• during the night

This is a very common Russian pattern with parts of the day or time words:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = in the daytime
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So:

• вставать ночью = to get up at night

This is just something you learn as a set pattern.

Yes, but there is a slight difference in emphasis.

• ночью = at night / during the night
• по ночам = at nights / night after night / on nights generally

По ночам often sounds more clearly habitual or repeated.

So:

• мне легко вставать ночью = neutral, natural
• мне легко вставать по ночам = emphasizes repeated nights more strongly

In this sentence, ночью sounds completely natural.

Here всё равно means:

• all the same
• anyway
• still
• nevertheless

So:

но я всё равно иду к ребёнку

means:

• but I still go to the child
• but I go to the child anyway

It shows that the action happens despite the difficulty mentioned earlier.

Important: learners often first meet всё равно in the sense it doesn’t matter / I don’t care, for example:

• Мне всё равно = I don’t care / it makes no difference to me

But in this sentence, it has the despite that meaning.

This is about the Russian verbs of motion.

• идти = to go on one directed trip, in one direction
• ходить = to go habitually, repeatedly, or in general

At first glance, because the situation repeats, you might expect хожу. But иду is very natural here because the speaker is describing the concrete response each time the child cries: they get up and go over to the child.

So иду presents the movement as:

• directed,
• immediate,
• tied to that moment.

It feels like:

• I go over to the child when he cries

If you said хожу к ребёнку, that would sound more like a general habit of going to the child, less like the immediate motion in response to crying.

So иду is a very natural choice here.

The preposition к means to / toward and takes the dative case.

So:

• ребёнок = nominative
• ребёнку = dative

Therefore:

• идти к ребёнку = to go to the child
• literally: to go toward the child

This is the standard way to express going toward a person.

Compare:

• к маме = to mother / to mom
• к врачу = to the doctor
• к другу = to a friend

So к ребёнку is exactly what you would expect after иду here.

Both are possible in Russian, but they mean slightly different things.

• когда он плачет = when he is crying / when he cries
• когда он заплачет = when he starts crying / whenever he bursts into tears

Here, плачет is imperfective, so it focuses on the ongoing action/state of crying.

That works well in a general repeated statement:

• I go to the child when he cries

If the sentence used заплачет, the emphasis would be more on the moment the crying begins.

So:

• плачет = ongoing crying
• заплачет = starts crying

Because in Russian, just like in English, the present tense can be used for:

• general truths,
• habits,
• repeated situations.

So когда он плачет means:

• when he cries
• whenever he cries

It does not have to mean only right now.

The whole sentence is describing a repeated real-life pattern:

• it is not easy for me to get up at night,
• but when the child cries, I go to him.

So the present tense is exactly what you would expect.

Sometimes Russian can omit subject pronouns, but here он is useful and natural.

Why?

Because Russian verb endings do show person and number, but плачет only tells you:

• he/she/it cries

Without он, the subject would be less explicit.

So:

• когда он плачет = clear and natural
• когда плачет = possible in some contexts, but more dependent on the situation and can sound less clear

Since the sentence explicitly refers back to ребёнок, keeping он is normal.

Yes, it matters for pronunciation and sometimes for meaning.

• ребёнок is pronounced with yo: reb-YO-nok
• всё is also pronounced with yo

In many Russian texts, ё is often written as е, especially in everyday typing. So you may also see:

• ребенку
• все равно

But the pronunciation is still usually:

• ребёнку
• всё равно

For learners, it is very helpful to pay attention to ё, because it shows both:

• the correct sound,
• and often the correct stress.

Because Russian punctuation separates these clauses.

1. Comma before но

Russian, like English, normally puts a comma before но when it joins two clauses:

• Не то чтобы мне легко вставать ночью, но я всё равно иду к ребёнку...

2. Comma before когда

The clause когда он плачет is a subordinate clause, so it is also separated by a comma:

• ...иду к ребёнку, когда он плачет

So the punctuation here is standard and expected.

Yes. In this expression, it is normally written:

• Не то чтобы

with no comma between то and чтобы.

So this is correct:

• Не то чтобы мне легко вставать ночью...

A learner may be tempted to write Не то, чтобы..., but in this fixed expression that is usually not right.

So it is best to remember не то чтобы as one set phrase.