2 yr old howling herself to sleep

[YouWithTheFace]

Wtf must I do with her? ! I am happy to sit quietly with her for ages til she goes to sleep but she tells me to go away over and over after a while, and will throw a tantrum if I don't, but as soon as I step out, she HOWLS FOR AGES. I refuse to yo yo in and out but I'm not happy about leaving her screaming. What do I do? What does she actually want?

Have you tried laying with her but not touching/engaging/looking at her so she knows you are there but it's bedtime?

my DD (2.5) went through this stage - wouldn't go to sleep without me or DH being in bed with her, but think it was playtime because we were there.

what we do now is get into bed with her, read her a story, then just as we're coming to the end tell her its night-night time when story is finished. when we're done she says goodnight to the book (and gives it a kiss, so sweet), then i kiss her, say night night sleep time now and turn over in bed - if i'm facing her she'll want to play lol

she'll wriggle around a couple of times, get up asking for different things or saying her knee/toe/foot/hand/elbow hurts - i tell her she's ok and its sleep time. i will then virtually ignore her apart from telling her its sleep time, and within 5-10 minutes she's snoring away.

sometimes its longer, sometimes within a few minutes.

x

Have you tried pottering around in a nearby room so she can hear that you are still about and not downstairs cracking open a bottle of wine