My 2-year-old has been sleeping in a toddler bed since she was 18 months old with little to no trouble. All of the sudden she is waking every night around 2-3 a.m. She acts as if either 1. She is scared of 2. She's not tired anymore. But she will fall back to sleep if I sit in there long enough. In order to even get her to go to sleep at night (for about the last 3 or 4 months), we have to leave her door opened slightly so she knows we are there. She has a nightlight in her room and we have added some "christmas lights" to make it bright enough so she's not scared.
Usually when she wakes in the middle of the night, I end up going in there and sitting with her until she falls back asleep which can take in upwards of 30 minutes (because she's afraid that I will leave again). If I leave too soon, she screams until I come back in. The other half of the time, I'm too exhausted to sit for that long and just let her get in the bed with me and my husband (which I do not want to do).
Last night was so bad that I sat up with her for an hour to try and get her to sleep in her room and then gave up and let her sleep in our bed. She went right to sleep once in our bed. I don't know what else to try. I'm at a loss and exhausted. Please help!!
I know if my daugher, who is 19 months, naps for more than 2 hours durring the day she'll wake up in the night. I try to keep her on a routine. Supper at 6:00, bath at 7:00 and bed at 8:00. Also, I give her a toy to sleep with and ask her to tuck it in and kiss it good night.
Even somtimes my ideas don't work and she ends up in the bed with my husband and me.
I have the same trouble with my 3 year old. He has been in a big bed since he was 2, but we have to lay down with him every night to get him to go to sleep. He has recently started getting up in the middle of the night and coming to our bedroom wanting to get in bed with us. He refuses to go back to his bed, unless we lay down with him. We have a 7 month old daughter as well, so sometimes we do it just to keep him from waking her up. I read somewhere that you could try to tell a child that if they woke up and couldn't get back to sleep in their bed and wanted to come to your room, that was fine, but they had to sleep on the floor with a pillow and blanket. I think it was supposed to be uncomfortable enough to make them want to go back to a cozy bed. I tried it, only I used a nap mat that my son had in day care. He doesn't get up every night, but he will occasionally and he lays down on the nap mat and goes to sleep without disturbing us. Hope this helps!
J.,
I have a 2 1/2 year old with the same problem. I think her goal is to get into our bed but I don't know what do do either. Just wanted to let you know you are not alone.
B.
Girl, I know exactly what you are going through! I have a 2 1/2 yr old and a 6 month old. Olivia went from her baby bed to a daybed right after Owen was born. She still seems to wake up around 2-3am. I am just like you, I do not want her in our bed, that can lead to disaster! It is not easy to stop, I am still haing problems. But what I have done, and I know its not the best thing to do, is I give her about 1/4 cup of warm milk and rub her hair, and in about minutes shes pretty much out.
If she doesn't take a nap that day, its even worse, 3 or 4 times she wakes up in a scream. But another good thing to try, instead of nitelight and christmas lights is, you should go and get one of those fish aquiariums! You know what I'm talking about? It looks like a flat screen with fish in the background and a light and the fish go across it. Oliuvia loves that, its entertaining and a bright nitelight as well.
Good Luck!
J.~
Just coming out of this situation...rough one too!
And I still have to get up 1 to 2 times a night several times a week still (not every night though)......but she does get back in her bed & goes right to sleep.
I put a TV, VCR, & DVD Player in her room....I let her watch a movie, I prefer the shorter ones. When the movie goes off she comes and tells me and I go put in a CD. I bought a CD player that attaches to the crib when she was a baby. Since her bed is a GenerationNext Conversion bed it still fits on there. I have a CD that I used when I was pregnant with her (Bebe Sounds), she listens to this every night to fall asleep.
I think the CD is about 40 mins or so long. And I do still have to get up some mornings at about 2:30 and turn back on her "pretty music".
I think the music does the lulling thing.
I hope this helps you in some way.
Smiles,
T.
