2 year old DD1 refuses to sleep during the day - It is runing my life!!

[CaptainDippy]

My 2 year old DD1 has suddenly started to refuse to sleep during the day. She used to have 2 hours between 10 and 12, but now I put her down and she gets up, put her down again and she gets up, no matter what time of day. I wouldn't worry, but she is absolutely exhausted and is an absolute misery from 10am onwards- and I mean ABSOLUTE misery - screaming and crying all the damn time, it doesn't stop and it is making every day miserable for me. I am starting to dread getting up in the morning because I know I have got to put up with a grumpy, miserable little so-and-so all day long.

Does anyone else understand? Is anyone else going through this?? Has anyone get any suggestions? I am going mad here!!

or no TV sandyballs, lol.

I think its a stage you just have to go through. I went through it with a 2 year old and a 2 month old, what worked for me was to give her an hour or so of quiet time, normally a dvd worked fine, do you have a video player, or just put kids tv on for a while. I thnk as soon as they drop their sleep they do need a quiet time.

Hi CaptDippy, sounds like your dd has bags of personality! I know you said you don't have a TV or DVD. For the longest time, dd was not interested in watching. But then, about a month ago, dd suddenly took an interest in a DVD cartoon which had a little girl that looked just like her. From then on, she was hooked. It has made all the difference to my life. Finally, she could occupy herself for 5-10 minutes at a go and even if she insisted I be there, she was low maintenance and I could be doing other things in the same room eg tidying, reading papers, mn, or just cuddling!

It has also helped her speech a lot - which has been on the slow side. Because we see the same scenes so many times, we can talk about scenes that are coming up and act some of them out. Just a side benefit to the DVD. I would much prefer she read books with me, than DVD, but it is not what she is interested in at this stage.

Just thought I'd share that. It might work for your dd, it might not. We can only keep trying!

missed that bit.

haven't read the whole thread - so this may be irrelevant.

Have you tried laying down with her - stay there until she goes to sleep and then you get up. I had to do that with my DS1 for a few months - it was the only way to get him to sleep and he was awful if he didn't sleep. Sometimes he was so adament he didn't want to sleep I had to hold him while he screamed for a few minutes - then he conked out and invariably slept for a couple of hours - and woke up a much happier and sunnier child.

Cheers for more replies guys!! Wish I could lie down with her, but have an eight month old in tow as well so such luxuries are impossible, I'm afraid. I am just completely exhausted from being "flat out" all day long - Really do need to implement this "quiet time"! thing - tried yesterday, but DD1 just sat in her room and screamed and screamed and screamed, which was ok, but DD2 is very high maintainance and needs my attention every single one of her waking hours - so I just don't get a break AT ALL - completely frazzled!!

actually I had twins who are 18 months younger than DS1 - can't quite remember what I did with them at the time - I guess I timed it for the same time as their nap - so got them in bed, then jumped in bed with ds1 - and tried not to go to sleep myself !