Restless toddler - do you go in to see them once you have put them to bed?

[margo1974]

My dd1 sleeps well and generally sleeps from 8 until 8 without waking.

Sometimes she doesn't settle and I wonder if the way we are dealing with it may start up future problems.

For example - tonight

Put dd1 to bed, read her a story etc.

45 mins later she was crying
DH went up to her, she had a runny nose and DH wiped it and left.

1 hour later she was crying again

I go up - she wants "small piglet" (she is already cuddling "big piglet") and she wants the drink of milk Dh left on the side. I go and get water instead, by the time I go back she is out of bed and she told me that she wants to use the toilet (she has a nappy on but I am potty training her) - she doesn't go.

So I take her back to bed, put on her nappy and her nighty, she tries her luck and asks me to read her a story. I say no - only one story at bedtime. I leave the room after saying goodnight and she has a little whinge after I shut the door.

I try to minimise the eye contact and the talking. Is anyone else torn between going in to your LO or telling them through the door to go back to sleep?

BTW DH has just informed me that she is still awake upstairs and I left the room 45 mins ago.

i went through this with ds a while ago. in the end i realised each time i humoured him I made it worse for myself. In the end DH (who is much more butch and manly than me) told him to stay in bed or he'd be in TROUBLE! Now if he wakes up in the night/early a.m he toilets himself, puts the light on and looks at his books. this is finre by me as long as he doesn't wake the whole street

Hello Margo!!

DD is 3, she is just toilet trained during the day but in nappies at night.

She has had a gate on her bedroom door since she was 18 months and went in to a bed.

Along the same line as Gemmie we put DD in to her room between 7 and 7.30 depending on how tired she is. In the winter we leave the landing light on for her (low energy bulb) and in the summer we leave her curtains open. She then plays or looks at books untl she is tired and puts herslf to bed. This is normaly around 8 - 8.30

We do occasionaly go up and see her if she calls and she has been through a few stages like chucking stuff out - which at the start we would give back, then we stoped and kept it for a while so she stopped. Then she learned to empty all her drawers as I would go in and neatly fold all the stuff (taking about 20 minutes) and then come away again. But I also learned this was her trick to get me in her room so stopped as well.

She is now really good about going to bed, and some nights asks to go.

We still have stories with her DB on our bed before hand, and she has 2 anywayupcups she takes in with her, one for water and one for milk, and she helps herself as she needs.

When she stops wearing nappies at night we'll have have to take the gate away (ready for DB) but we still have a top stair get gate to stop her coming down.

Hope this helps.

X

Well having 5 kids you would think I would have all the answers but I don't

Dd4 is 3.5 and usually goes 7-7 without problems, but on the occasions when she is a pain we have a 2 story maximum and she gets away with one visit downstairs to give extra kisses ect.... After that its a strict Back to bed now its time for sleep, then after that a no talking aproach just taking her back to bed. Usually works after 2-3 times. And if all else fails I briber her with something good to do the next day if she goes to sleep

we will go to dd1 twice if she calls. on the 3rd time we tell er not to call us again or there will be trouble. she knows we mean it so doesnt bother.

it took a while as she went through about a month of playing up. you're doing fine. just be consistent and your dc will get the message