I have a 2 year old(will be 3 in April). She still will not sleep through the night. It's driving me crazy and she is tired! I have her on a regular schedule (bath, book, bed - no TV). She doesn't drink juice or eat a lot of sugar. She just wakes up and sort scratches her head and doesn't cry, but wants to get up and be comforted. She doesn't have a pacifier or blanket or anything that I've taken away. I'm at a loss. I don't know what I'm missing. Do I need to talk to the doctor? Is just one of those kids that I hear about that just won't sleep until she turns 3? HELP!!!!!!!!
You said that she doesn't have a pacifier or blanket, etc. Does she sleep with some sort of lovey? If not then maybe it would help to have her pick out a special stuffed toy or blanket that can be her sleep buddy. Hopefully she can learn to use that to comfort/self soothe herself when she wakes up as it will be a familiar friend and be able to fall back to sleep on her own versus needing mom's familiar face. Good luck.
I would try seriously cutting down the nap/take it away and/or putting her to bed later. She may be getting to much rest during the day or going to bed to early??
M.,
I think that if it were my child, I would talk to the Doctor. Please make sure that he takes you seriously and give him all the information. There may be some reason why your baby isn't sleeping. At her age, she shouldn't have any trouble sleeping soundly all night.
Does she take anything to bed with her? If she has a little plushie or something that she can cuddle with if she wakes up, it might comfort her enough to go back to sleep.
My daughter used to wake up anywhere from 3:00 to 5:00 a.m. a few days a week and need to be held to go back to sleep. One night, she insisted on bringing a stuffed cow with her to bed, and I let her as it didn't seem that it would harm anything. Since she's been taking that cow with her, she's put herself back to sleep and slept until 8:00, every single morning.
Good luck!
You can try http://www.babywhisperer.com/smf/ and go to the toddler sleep board. They can look at your routine and see if anything stands out as needing tweaking. :)
Does she like music?? Maybe soft, soothing music set to "repeat" will help. We do that when my 3yo is having a bad bout of nightmares. We have some quite jazz CD's and a cute Winnie the Pooh CD of lullabys that she likes a lot. It might be worth a shot!
We (my husband and I) had to do the good old fashion tough love with our little one. We kept her door open and a hall light on, kept the monitor on so we knew she was okay and safe; then we put the baby gate up at night on her bedroom doorway. Our rule; sure you can be up, all night if you choose, but you are not coming out of your room, playing, or getting into mommy and daddy's bed. Once she realized that nothing fun was going to happen at 2am she quickly got out of the habit!
Unfortunately, at some point you have unintentionally reinforced her wake ups at night, and that is why she does it. The regular routine is a great step. What is her day sleep like? She should be taking about a two hour nap mid-day. Bad day sleep=bad night sleep. I would visit www.babywhisperer.com and go to the toddler sleep boards on the message boards to get specific tips about how to help her sleep through. It is certainly possible at this age, although you have some "undoing" to do. Good luck!
Hi there M.,
When my daughter started waking up in the night, I started feeding her something right before bed. I made sure that it was something filling like oatmeal or a banana. We made it part of the routine and she ate as we read her book or before. ;) It helped us a lot. Hopefully it will help you!
Good luck to you!
Hi!
I have to agree with Laura R. on the sleeping buddy. My son at about 15 months woke up in the middle of the night. He cried for about a minute, then my husband and I heard him say, "dog", and he went right back to sleep.
He had found the stuffed dog he had brought to bed with him that night. It totally comforted him and soothed him back to dreamland.
Since then, we always make sure "dog" is there for naps and bed.
Good Luck.
By the way... my son chose his own object, I didnt even know he had done it until he called it by name that night.
:)
Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber is the book that we used to get our middle son to sleep through the night. It is availabe at the library.
Hope it helps.
Is she still in a crib? My daughter had a hard time sleeping all the way through the night until we put her in a toddler bed. Once she was able to get in and out on her own, she didn't wake up and want snuggles anymore. I would also give her some kind of comfort item. Maybe even go as far as letting her pick out a special stuffed animal or doll that will be there in the middle of the night if she needs some snuggles.
Hi M.,
This happened with us and it was sooooo exhausting. We tried everything you could possible think of and nothing worked....until we did the tough love. Our daughter new that if she whined or cried long enough we would eventually come in. I think most kids wake up some time in the middle of the night. The issue is whether they can self-soothe themselves back to sleep. We were not even giving our daughter a chance to learn that so she knew all she had to do was make a peep and we would come running. But when it started affecting my work day and moods because of lack of sleep I knew I had to grit my teeth and go for it. I know it can be hard listening to your child cry. But here is everything you know: She is safe. She doesn't need emergency attention. There is nothing wrong with her. She just has been trained to get a reaction from you in this manner, and now she is used to it. The first few nights were tough. I would let her cry for a bit and then go in there just to tell her everything is ok and she needs to go back to sleep. I wouldn't stay until she was back to sleep. Big mistake. Then...the tough part...let her cry herself back to sleep. I know it's hard. But you are teaching her a huge lesson on self comforting and she will sooner than you think be putting herself back to sleep when she wakes in the middle of the night. Now my daughter knows that if she cries I am not coming in there and she goes back to sleep on her own. We do keep the monitor on. And mothers do know the difference between the "there is something wrong cry" in the middle of the night as compared to the "I just want someone" cry. So don't be afraid of something really being wrong with her. You will know. If you get that knot in your stomach, go check on her.
My dauhter has been sleeping through the night for almost a year. And now if she cries in the middle of the night, I know it is for a reason.
I hope someone was able to help you and you can sleep well soon!
Beth
