Hello, I have seen many posts on here about younger children, but not about any older than toddler age so I thought I would put this out there. My husband and I are about to lose our minds. We have a 7 year-old and a 2 year-old, and our younger child puts himself to sleep every night without issue. Our older child, however, takes hours to fall asleep, and when she finally does, she wakes every 2 hours or so and comes into our bedroom to wake us up wanting to sleep in our bed with us. She is just simply too big (size and age) to be sleeping in our bed every night. It is impossible for us (and our child) to get a good nights' sleep with this happening every single night, as it happens every 2 hours until sunrise. I don't know how she is functioning with so little sleep. She doesn't cry or throw fits, she just constantly gets out of her bed. We have tried everything the 'experts' suggested, like no TV or tablet after dinnertime, giving her a bath before bed, reading stories right before bedtime, and she certainly does not take naps during the day... We have tried ALL of it and nothing works. She still gets up non-stop throughout the night, every night. I cannot sleep knowing she could get up in the middle of the night and roam the house, and if we don't allow her to sleep in our bed she just sits on her bed for hours staring into our bedroom, not even trying to go to sleep. We cannot take it anymore. She is too old to be doing this, in my opinion. Every article I read on the subject is for toddlers. She will be 8 this summer. We have tried calmly tucking her back into bed, and she still gets up and comes to our room the minute I get back in my bed. I hate to say it but I have gotten so frustrated that I have screamed until my throat was sore. I am just so frustrated by this, and our pediatrician doesn't even have any answers. She just tells us "no electronics before bed"... We know! We don't allow her to have electronics after 4:00 p.m., and bedtime is at 9:30. I am sorry this post is so long but I am just at my wits end. This is a nightmare. My husband and I cannot stand being woken every 2 hours, every single night. It is ridiculous and has to stop. She has no other behavioral problems, she is a wonderful child, and during the day everything is great. She just will not stay in her bed at night.
We thought she was afraid of the dark, so we got her a small projector light that puts starts on the ceiling along with a small nightlight plugged into her wall. It doesn't help. Nothing helps. If anyone can offer any suggestions, please, please help me.
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7 year old not sleeping
13 replies
BJ1027 · 29/04/2020 07:45
OP posts:
paediatrician321 ·
17/01/2021 17:09
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