3 yr old waking 6+ times a night. Help!

[Winniethewylde]

As you can imagine, I'm at the end my tether.

DD has just turned 3 and still wakes 6+ times a night and I'm just exhausted. I'm a single parent with a 6 year old too (she sleeps fine, I hasten to add!)

She dropped her naps about 2 months ago and things seem to have got slowly worse since then. She was taking well over an hour to settle when she was still napping and now she goes to bed like a dream but starts waking up from about midnight onwards. She has a Ewan the dream sheep which she likes to be on every time she

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She likes to be switched on every time she wakes, she can't seem to find the button to do it herself.

She has never been one to want to come in my bed so I don't really want to start encouraging that at this late stage.

She goes at bed between 630/7. I just don't know what to do. Can anyone help at all or make any suggestions for what I could try please? Thanks so much for reading.

Is the sheep all she needs or does she also want cuddles?

If it's literally just the sheep I suggest practising finding the button in daytime, and maybe have a nightlight in her room so she has light to help her find the button.

Then if you are confident she could actually do it by herself, you can get a bit tough ie tell her at bedtime that you will not come and do the sheep as you know she can do it by herself.

We had a similar thing with DD waking up wanting water - we got a no spill cup and showed her how to find and use it, we also had to be firm saying we would not come and do it for her. What also helped was using a monitor with talkback function so if she woke we could remind her how to find her water, but without going into her room Iyswkm.

Good luck - sounds exhausting.

Thanks for the reply. It's all manner of things really, sometimes water, sometimes wants her sleeves pulling down, needs loo etc but mostly she calls/cries out, I go in and turn the sheep on and she goes back to sleep.

I'll try that but I think she is half asleep so probably couldn't work it out but I've tried leaving her and she just continues to cry out until I go in. So frustrating.

I've tried talking down the monitor and she freaks out, she hates it!

I think there's another version of Ewan the dream sheep for that age group... Think it's a dog , not sure what it does but maybe worth a try!

Does she snore, dribble, get tonsillitis? In mine it was sleep apnea waking her and she's so much better after the op. She still wakes though but now it's once or twice which is better than every 40min-1hr30,

What noise does she have on Ewan? Could you just get a cd of White noise or whatever so it's on constantly?

Having said that, my 16 month old can turn ewan on himself, so it seems more likely it's you she needs rather than the sheep iyswim?

She does have Ewan on the white noise. To be honest she always used to sleep as a baby with white noise playing constantly and I weaned her off it as it was causing problems when napping out of the house, on holiday, sharing with my eldest etc.

I'm sure if I could get her to switch it back on herself all problems would be solved then.