My beloved DH died suddenly last October. I've been doing everything I can to try and keep my 3 year old DD happy and safe but I'm really not coping with bedtimes. By the end of the day I'm utterly exhausted and struggling to hold it together. DD used to be a brilliant sleeper and would go down beautifully after her usual routine - bath, a bit of CBeebies, two stories, cuddle, kiss, bed. She would often look at books or play on her cot for a bit which was fine. But suddenly she has started absolutely refusing to go to bed. She cries hysterically and insists on getting up to watch TV with me. Stupidly I let this happen 3 or 4 times and now she screams for it every night. I can't go on like this, I'm getting absolutely no time to myself because bedtime is taking 3 hours or more.
Things I've tried:
- reward charts and stickers - she likes the idea during the day but at night says she doesn't care
- groclock
- audio books
- going in to comfort her repeatedly - it just gets her more and more worked up
- being firm - most of the time I stay calm and gentle because that's my parenting style so I tried being firmer one night and it was the worst of all
- reassuring her from outside the door
- sitting in her room with her
The only thing that works is giving in and letting her watch something on TV - but even that sometimes has to happen two or three times before she'll sleep.
I'm really not coping with it. Please help?