Apologies for the long post but man desperately seeking help please!
We have two girls - 3.5 yrs and 9 months, both absolutely brilliant happy girls but have a huge problem with the 3 year old at night. She's a dream during the day and excellent with her little sister but I've now not had more than about 4 hours' sleep in a night for the last 13 months and probably only a 2 hour stretch at a time max which is really taking its toll, moreso as I have a demanding job and can't be functioning at 100% there as a result of this either! Prior to this (early last summer would being the last time she slept through) we've had patches of say 6 weeks where she's slept through but to be honest she's never been the best (colic as a baby, big operation when she was 1 plus the usual regular colds, teething etc!).
My wonderful wife has her hands full with the baby so I've been looking after the toddler at night but over a year is now getting ridiculous! She and the little one have moved in with my parents this week while I try and crack it as otherwise the 3yo wakes the baby all night and then it's all 4 of us walking around like zombies the next day. We tried this last month and they moved out for about 3 weeks but had no joy.
The problem isn't that I have to sit in with her, or sleep with her or even getting her to sleep - it's that she just regularly wakes and wants to know I'm there (sat outside her door). Trying to break it this week has been a nightmare, I've been letting her cry when she wakes for 2 mins, then checking on her, then 4, 6, 8 etc. but she's been scaling the stairgate so I've had to rush up while she's on top of it so that she doesn't fall off and down the stairs. The next day I bought a big 4 foot high dog gate, she was then getting boxes, stools, the rocking caterpillar thing - anything to help her climb up and over. The next day my wife emptied virtually everything out of her room so last night she got piles and piles of clothes emptying all her drawers to make a clothes mountain to climb up to try and get out - it's ridiculous (though would make a good comedy sketch!). Anyway, she's black and blue all over her knees and chin from climbing up it which is heartbreaking and this method doesn't seem to have any positive effect other than risking injury and even less sleep than if I sit outside her door or sleep on the floor in her room.
Has anyone here been through anything like this and have any advice on getting her to sleep well at night? If I'm at the bottom of the stairs and call up she seems to be happy with that as she knows I'm there - she doesn't seem to need to see me - but obviously I can't be doing that when wife and baby are home...
Thanks in advance, willing to try anything!
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55 replies
HollyMaingate · 18/08/2016 10:38
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