My nearly 3 year old wakes up between 5.30am and 6.30am full of beans. She will not nap after lunch and hasn't for about a year. Even if I drive in the car for 1 hour (yes I have done it when desperate!!) she will not fall asleep. Then at 4pm she is exhausted and wants to sleep. If I let her sleep I then cannot wake her up or she screams and falls back to sleep. She will sleep until 7pm and then will not go to bed until midnight and will then wake up at 6am as usual. If I don't let her sleep at 4pm (which is possible by giving her a bath, playing outside etc) She will fall asleep between 6pm and 7.30pm and sleep until about midnight and then wake us up in the night and sleep in our bed until about 6am kicking us all night and waking up everytime she has a dream to tell me about it. She is a very light sleeper and if we put her back in her room she will spend all night chasing us back into our room. I am soooo tired as I work evenings (8pm-11pm) so do not get to bed until midnight. My DD has sooo much energy in the day she just keeps going and going and has no down time she is very intelligent and talks non stop which is great I suppose but she is wearing me out. I cannot answer the 200 whys a day and play chase over and over again I am exhuasted. She just had her check up with the health visitor (2.5 year check) and she suggested a nap after lunch as she may be overtired hence the super energy levels she appears to have, but I just cannot get her to go to sleep at that time a day no matter what I do. Can anyone help me? I am exhausted.
Also I am starting to use the TV as a crutch as I am so tired but the health visitor said that could be stimulating her more, what on earth can I do with her when she wakes up at 5.30am in the morning instead of letting her watch TV, does anyone have ideas of what to do at that time of morning?