Sleeping suggestions?

PrincessShay80

So DD just hit 20 months old and something happened to her sleep pattern! She goes to really easily- no issues- sleeps for about 5 hours and then around 3am, every stinking night she is up screaming bloody murder. I have tired waking her up around midnight to interrupt her sleep pattern in case it was nightmares, that did help one night- she slept until 5am instead of 3am.

I have started giving her some motrin- her 2 year molars are starting to come in- so I thought that may be part of the problem.

Here is the thing- some nights I can get her back to sleep- until around 7am, but most nights she will go back to sleep for about 30 minutes then up again crying, but if I bring her in bed with us- she's fine. I HATE doing this- I don't want her in bed with us. She has never slept with us, I don't get why she is doing this now!

I am really at the end of my rope with this. Today I was thinking- she loves to sleep on the couch with a pillow- I wonder if I got her a flat pillow if she would like it- she also likes to sleep on the pillows in our bed, Im thinking if I took one of our pillows and gave it to her- it would also smell like us- she seems to really like being in bed with us.

Any other thoughts? I also though I would get out the pack and play and bring it in our room- and try to get her to sleep in that. In reality I want her in her bed sleeping, but if she will sleep in our room its better that she not be in bed with us.

PLEASE HELP a mom in much need of some sleep!

laura1

My DS did this right around age 2 (his 2 year molars were already in, so I couldn't even blame it on teeth!).  I remember reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy child in Target trying to figure out what to do!  

Like you, I wondered if DS needed a pillow, so I ended up buying him his own (with a car pillow case since he LOVES cars) - and I made a huge deal about it, talking about how he was such a big boy, and now he had his own Car pillow, so he should stay in his crib over night.   Right after that, he ended up sleeping on his own again.  I am not sure if it was the pillow, or just a phase that ended, but we were happy!

I was also going to buy a night light (DS has never had a night light since he needs it to be really dark to sleep), because I was wondering if he was waking up and getting scared since he couldn't see where he was.  

And HSHHC also recommended getting a timer.  Then you could go in and rock with her but tell her it was only until the timer went off, then she had to go back to her bed like a big girl.  Then you make the rocking interval shorter each night.  We never actually used this, but I did buy an egg timer and I was going to try it!

Finally, when we were on vacation, DS woke up a few times overnight and had a hard time going back to sleep - probably because he was afraid in an unfamiliar place.  We ended up moving his pnp into our room and he did fine in the room with us.  So if what you try doesn't work, you could always do this as a last resort!! 

Good luck!