Toddler repeatedly waking at night, demanding!

[armsinjumpers]

Please help.... DD 2.9 has never been a good sleeper with frequent night wakes but recently she's been waking 4-5 times a night making increasingly outlandish demands from wanting chocolate biscuits to watching TV at 3am. Obviously a tantrum is triggered when she's told no!

It's clear it's not really about what she says she wants but we're exhausted as we have a 12 week old as well. Yes it has got worse since he was born and DD will often come and try and get in our bed then shouts and tries to wake DS up and
to kick at me till I get up and do what she wants/distract her which is getting harder.

If it was just DD or just DS we could manage but the 2 together is becoming unbearable.

Any advice gratefully received.

Oh dear, this fills me with worry as I'm 6 months pregnant and ds will be 2.7 when the baby's born - and he's a night waker too :(

Could you try a stairgate on her door? That way, she at least can't come into your room. Gro clock? It could be that she sees the baby getting it's demands met throughout the night, so why shouldn't she?! Not reasonable, but then most 2yr olds aren't. How has she been about the new baby in general? Could reading some books about it (during the day!) help her to process difficult feelings? Special time with her before bed, just you/dh and her? Sticker chart?

I'll be trying some/all of the above in the next couple of months. For now it's disruptive enough that ds wakes me (hence being on mn at this time...) and I struggle to get back to sleep anyway.

Failing all the above, do what you can to survive and get through this stage together (ear plugs and alternate nights with dh?)

I find Dr Richard Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems really helpful when we have night waking issues. It's full of things to try and has given me a much better understanding of sleep problems.

DS3 is a nightmare sleeper atm, it's very tough.