4yo waking EVERY night
My 4 year old DD has been waking up at least once a night for the past 6 months or so. First it started with her either needing a drink or wanting her music back on (we had a lullaby CD playing for her), or she thought ther were bugs in her room (the "bugs" were actually her CD player squeaking from being used so much). And she used to just come into our room and tap us to wake us up.
Now, she's waking up crying and asking us to cover her back up or telling us she can't sleep. We just put her back into bed, cover her up, and go back into our room. We leave her radio on instead of playing a CD, her door is open, and the hall light is on. She has a nightlight and we even gave her a kid's flashlight to sleep with. But we've run out of ideas and it obviously getting very exhausting, for all of us.
Has anyone gone through this before? Any ideas on how to break this? I am anxiously awaiting the warmer weather when she won't need us to "cover her back up", but I really don't think that's the main issue. I was thinking of doing some kind of chart, similar to a potty training chart, with a reward after so many nights of not waking us up. Thanks, and sorry this was so long.
Our Angel baby, lost at 6w6d on 6/10/08
Re: 4yo waking EVERY night
Married since 06/19/2004|Anna born 11/19/2006|Charles born 11/1/11
Double undergrad graduation May 2011| Me: Psychology, DH: Communication| A long journey!
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My DD has been having this issue also. She just turned 5. I leave a little 4 oz cup of water near her bed, solves the drink problem. We have a nightlight in the bathroom, so now she doesn't come in and ask anymore.
I give her a reward chart. She gets a choice 10 stickers she gets a little prize, 20 stickers, she gets a pick a fun family activity. Last time she picked Chuck E. Cheese. It seems to work pretty well.
We went through that for a few weeks this winter - ugh! I forgot how wonderful it was to STTN!
Finally, I told her that the only thing I'm allowed to do when she calls for me in the middle of the night is to stand at her door and blow her kisses. It only took a few nights before she stopped calling me altogether. It just wasn't fun enough for her anymore, I think, which is fine by me!
GL!
My almost 4YO was doing this too. We have a sticker reward chart for her. Works like a charm.
It has her name at the top, and then the numbers 1-7. For every 7 stickers, we go to the Dollar Store and she gets one item.
GL!