Is there a sleep regression at almost 3 years old? Why is my toddler waking at night?

Could she be hungry? I found at that age they needed a very early dinner at least 2 hours before bedtime, preferably 2.5 hrs before, otherwise they'd be too tired to eat properly and then wake up at night or take ages to go to bed because hungry.

I would do dinner before 5pm if possible and then offer a little supper type snack about 30 mins before bedtime.

This IME also tends to encourage them to keep waking up - or at least, to keep calling out for you when they wake up.

When I switched to just comforting DS3 to sleep in his own room, he stopped calling out for me in the night. It was more disruptive in the short term but worth it for the long term benefit of avoiding co-sleeping that no longer worked for everyone.

Yeah it could be. I used to find once my DC were older than about 18 months if they were asking to feed at night it was more comfort - if they were actually hungry then they'd feed and feed and feed for ages and then just sit up and ask hopefully for breakfast. So I don't think it was filling them up in the way it had when they were younger. DS3 always ate much better than the older two and so didn't really have this issue.

With DS1/2 I never really believed the whole "they are waking up on purpose to get milk" and I don't think it is exactly that, it's more like they wake up slightly in the night (as we all do) and when they're used to sleeping through on their own they just go back to sleep. But if something is wrong like they're too cold, or they're hungry or they have had a bad dream then they will often call out for you. And then if you have been feeding or bringing them into your bed, then the night wake becomes "This is when Mummy comes to get me" so they cry for you, but if you want to avoid that then changing the way you respond can help. I did not leave them to cry, I just changed my response e.g. soothing in their room without feeding or with feeding but not bringing through to my own bed.

The most likely thing is she needs some emotional reassurance. If you put a small mattress next to your bed she could come through if she wants.

None of ours had naps from age 2 onwards or no sleep

Could she be cold? I've noticed it gets really cold in our room around 3/4am.

Young kids don't do things for attention, they do them for reassurance or for love.

Both of mine were like this at this age. My theory is they are old enough to be scared of the dark and being by themselves. Could be 2-3-4 wakeups a night for ages. Damn near killed me and was very unexpected after they had been good sleepers up until that point. So you are not alone.

Sleeping through the night is a relatively new feature of (some) humans. Bi-phasic sleeping is totally normal and probably healthier for us generally. It’s a societal thing that sleep should be in one block, and in reality none of us sleep through the night.

There are developmental leaps at 3 and 3.5 and I remember DD being much more wakeful. But it definitely helps to have realistic expectations.

We had lots of random periods of bad sleep when dd was 3/4. Milk and a couple of crackers before bed helped for some of the periods…never really figured a reason. Stopped before 5 I think! Good luck!

For the eldest we found a sleep consultant (Andrea Grace). I was pregnant, working full time and one night I had a total of 3 hours sleep in 2 chunks and was on my knees. That helped stabilise things and we did see a lot of improvement. Quite militant about not letting her in the bed. The worst phases didn’t last that long maybe 3-4 months.

Didn’t do that with #2, probably should have though because it took a long time to sort out. She used to like falling asleep to stories so would play story CDs all night. Then I figured out the light from the corridor outside her room was shining in her eyes, and flipped round the direction of her bed so she had nothing shining directly on her and that helped. By this point I had given up former rules and she was allowed in the bed or I would get in with her.

Oh sorry and you asked how did I manage? I used to have a big nap either Sat or Sunday or both. Being woken up to 4 times a night is shattering when you are working 50 hours a week. Was a tough phase no doubt about it.

Cut the naps and try an earlier bedtime for a while until she adjusts.