Night time issue

amywalt1684

Ok guys, what's the best way of dealing with this....

DD has never been an awesome sleeper, but lately she's been waking up around 3 and staying awake for over an hour! Nothing gets her back to sleep rocking, snacks, drinks etc. I hate to let her just cry because it wakes up DS but maybe that's what I need to do. On top of it all she won't let me just go to bed I have to stay in her room and sit down. I'm sure she's just playing me but what should I do.. ? It's getting old.

melissa0726

We went through this for a little while with DD1.  It was so annoying, I was up every single night for 1-2 hours!

I sat her down for a serious talk (well, as serious as you can get with a 2 year old, lol) and told her that she was to stay in her room at night, all night.  I didn't get elaborate or try to get into exceptions (i.e. sick, scared, potty), I kept it really simple:  That when I put her to bed, she was supposed to stay there until the sun came up.  We had this chat during the day, and then again right before bed at night. 

Miraculously, that night, she did not show up in our room at 3am.  When she did come in around 7, I made a HUGE deal about her staying in her room, good job waiting to wake up until the sun was up, etc etc.  Praised her as much as possible.  And it is really working.  I still remind her at night before bed that she needs to be a big girl and sleep in her bed, and most nights, she stays put. 

If this didn't work (just talking to her about it) my backup was to do a sticker chart with a reward when she went x amount of days staying in her room, maybe that's something you could try?

amywalt1684

Yes, thank you! Sounds silly but I knew I needed to think outside of my typical box! Great ideas, thank you Melissa!

melissa0726

Hope it works! 

Another thing I do is that if she knows we have plans the following day, we talk about how we all need our rest if we want to go out and do certain activities.  So I start out with, "You know how we're supposed to meet our friends at the park tomorrow?  Going to the park takes lots of energy, so we need to get a good night's sleep.  When you're too tired to enjoy the park, we can't go, because then we don't have fun."  That is usually a great way to give her some incentive to go right to sleep!

MrsCase1

I know this is unpopular but I would let her CIO. We have had to re-visit this method a few times over the past 2+ years but it is well worth it. Lincoln has been waking on and off for the past four months and we let him CIO unless we understand it to be a cry we associate with an actual need. He is still good at putting himself back down.