Toddler not sleeping all of a sudden

[LoopyLoopsIsTentativelyBack]

DD (2.9) has been quite a good sleeper for a year or so, but in the past couple of weeks have woken crying every night, often a few times. She wants the door left open and hall light on (which makes it hard to sleep, but gets upset without), goes to sleep, then wakes crying, disorientated and upset a few hours later.

She also wakes very early, much more than before, and seeps very lightly. If one of us walk past her bedroom she will wake, making my early mornings before work very tricky, and meaning we avoid going for the loo or anything in the night.

One recent change is that DH (SAHD) has had to get rid of his car. DD was quite upset by this, and has to walk a lot more than she used to. Also, we are planning to emmigrate in the summer, but I don't think she really understands this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks. :)

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I think they all go through a stage of wanting the hall light on etc at around your DD's age. My DS1 (4.1) used to do this - he will demand the door be kept opened, hall light left on... And if we tried to turn off the light, he will wake up at some stage demanding it to be on again. It was exhausting! I would suggest two things here - a bright enough night light and a torch that she can keep by the side of the bed (you can get torches where you have to keep the 'on' button depressed to keep it on or one of those 'self-winding' torches to save you replacing batteries all the time) she can turn on whenever she likes. Make a big deal about those when you give it to her. We told DS1 it was a big boy's light and it means the hall light can't be on anymore!

As for the sleeping lightly issue, I think they again go through stages... DS1 was terrible as a baby (we probably didn't help as he was PFB and we had black out blinds etc so created a rod for our own back!). He now sleeps through his brother (they share a room and DS2 is 2.4 so tend to wake more) crying/screaming etc! I wouldn't worry too much to be honest. Kids need to get used to noise, you can't creep around them forever! Good luck!

Brilliant idea re torch, thank you so much. She loves torches. :)

The glo touch that I linked to can be a torch too but in my experience, don't advertise that fact to your DD as they are rather fragile and break easily if dropped. I can attest to that!

If she is waking too early, have you tried the gro clock? We have had this for a long time, it's recommended for 30 month old onwards. We had it since DS1 was 2.6 and it did take a few months to get him to understand he has to stay in bed till the sun comes up. Even if DS1 does wake up before the sun does, he usually lies and plays in bed till the sun wakes up and I am treated to him yelling 'Mummy, sun is awake!' He wakes for him to shout to him it is okay to wake up before he does get out of his bed. Bless him! It's not completely foolproof though as sometimes I get him yelling early in the morning 'the clock is broken!' if he thinks he's been waiting too long for it to come up!

Thank you. It's me getting up that wakes her unfortunately for work, so not sure I can persuade her it's too early to get up when I'm dressed and ready!

Is she still sleeping in the day? If she's still having a nap, this might also be a sign that she's ready to drop it?

She is, but is really grumpy when she doesn't have one.

That's because she's tired from the nighttime sleep being disturbed. It can be a red herring. Naps which aren't needed anymore but which some toddlers hold on to will affect nighttime sleep because in a 24 hour period they are 'robbing' from the nighttime hours to give to the daytime hours.

This happened with my daughter quite early at the age of 2. Once we dropped her nap (and she was grumpy for a couple of weeks) her nights improved dramatically. I could be wrong, but at nearly 3, I would suggest its her nap to blame.