Sleep Help - Almost 3 Year Old

Ciarrai

I never thought I'd be asking for sleep help...especially not for an almost 3-year-old.  We do CIO at about a 6 months (give or take) and my girls have always been great sleepers.  DS is still not STTN.  Well, he was but then we went away for Thanksgiving, came home and he was teething, tons of company for the holidays...well, he got out of it, but that's another story.  Anyway, DD#2 has started waking up at least 4-5 nights a week (sometimes multiple times a night).  She comes into our room and says she needs to go potty.  We take her to the bathroom and put her right back to bed.  She doesn't drink any water at night or really after dinner.  She goes right before bed and doesn't really seem to need to go in the middle of the night.  It's more like it's a habit or like she's using that as an excuse to get up.  Last night she was up at 2am and 3am saying she needed to go potty both times.  At 3, she asked DH if it was time to get up and said she wanted to snuggle and watch her shows.  FWIW - She's been PT for almost a year now and has never had trouble overnight until a few weeks ago.  Basically everyone's sleep went to *** after Thanksgiving. 

Obviously, we can't not take her to the bathroom.  I'm thinking about trying to convince her to go on her own and go back to bed.  She goes by herself during the day but at night she's only half-awake and seems to need more help.  Is this just something she'll grow out of?  Any other ideas?  Between her and DS's crappy sleep, I'm about ready to lose it!  Someone was up almost every hour last night and I didn't get to bed until about 12 anyway with work.

hikerbeth

You definitely can't ignore the potty thing, but does she have a clock in her room?

That way she would know that "it's not time to wake up yet."  We put a clock in DD's room when she was about 2.5 and that stopped the before 6 AM wakings.  I think she still wakes up early, but she doesn't come out of her room 'til 7.

We got a clock at Target that has a different color for every number so she knows that when the first/green number is "7", it's time to wake up.  It was less than $10.

Ciarrai

The girls do have a clock, but it's an iPod docking station one and I'm not sure if DD#2 can see it.  That's a good idea.  I also could set the "alarm" to go off at 7 and turn on their music at least during the week or say it's not time to get up until the sun is up or something if I didn't get another clock.  Hmmmmmm.

Right now, we have nightlights in the hall and the girls' bathroom.  Do you think that leaving the bathroom light on or a brighter light like a table lamp on low would help?  Maybe it would remind her that she can go on her own?  Kinda like moth to a flame? 

hikerbeth

We have a bajillion low-power/LED nightlights between the kids rooms and the bathroom.  I prefer that so we're not wasting energy, but it's still really bright.

AHblessed01

I personally think she'll grow out of it especially if she just started doing it after thanksgiving. I would keep a light on like you suggested that might help and the clock thing sounds like a good idea too! GL!