2.5 year old waking at night still !!!!!!

[jillnlois]

please help!!! my 2.5 year old is still in cot and is waking at night at least twice a night, screams, cries, kicks cot until i go to her to settle her down then will sleep, but wakes up again later, she says she wants a cuddle but i do cc on her which is not working can anyone help??? PLEASE???? thanks

no tips I'm afraid, but just to let you know that you are not alone.

my ds 2.2 is the same. Up for at least 2 hours in a night, won't settle on his own.

DS was a rubbish sleeper - so I do feel your pain! The thing that improved him massively (although he still wakes maybe once every week/10 days) was actually a star chart - star for everynight he put himself back to sleep on his own rather than crying. I never expected it to work - nothing else had- but it was amazingly effective.

I think it might be worth thinking about a move to a big bed too - again, ds slept better when we moved him out of his cot (we were terrified he'd get worse!)

Oh, and toddlers waking in the night is much more common than you'd think - something like 50% wake at least once a fortnight, I think.

we have tried the reward/star chart, but did not work, though we are considering changing her cotbed to the bed but am terrified she will get worse, but we will try it. thanks. she always asks for a cuddle, our gp says to give in a little and see if this hepls???

Sleepless nights .. I sympathise with you.. My 3 yr old is still waking at least twice a night and now comes into our bed a habit i wish we hadn't started ! So good luck and if you find someting that works please let us know...

As you can see i didn't spell check before I sent ..

My DD will be 3 next month and has only just started sleeping through the night(most nights) so I know exactly how you feel! We tried everything including a star chart and it didn't work either - too abstract for her I think - delayed gratification not being something toddlers are into!

What worked for us was that we were visited by the'sleep fairy'. I gave DD a little wooden box with a lid on it (that mercifully I found lying round the house)and explained to her that the sleep fairy might come if she was a good girl and stayed in her bed. When she came through to our bed that night I reminded her about the sf and took her back through which she was amenable to (a first!). The next morning the sf had been leaving a teeny tiny card (with a fairy on the front -ok a stick figure with wings - my artistic skills are practically nil ) telling her how fantastic she had been there was special sf glitter dust on the table and 2 maltesers with the card in the box.

This seemed to really catch her imagnination and she does try hard for the sf and has finally got into a pattern of sleeping through the night - the sf doesn't have to go to town quite so much now (sometimes a sweet, or maybe a sticker ir a dried apricot) but every so often she does send a bigger gift (a book or something) and when DD has gone a couple of weeks or so - also if we have a setback where DD keeps getting up or calling out for us the sf bypasses our house for a few days and it is noticed.

This has worked for us - obviously doesn't have to be a fairy but just something that would catch the imagination of your lo. It also helped that we talked to nursery about it and her carers then asked her about it etc so she felt really important.

Anyway - best of luck I hope you manage to find something that works for you soon!

Thanks for your message Sounds like a great idea & something that would catch his imagination too! Will try this idea & fingers crossed we will have some success .
Good to hear that your efforts have paid off with your DD, hope it continues . Thanks again.

Oh, beagle, what good advice. i was just looking for something to help us with a regular night visitor. DS is 2 and out of his cot so just wanders in, and likes to sleep with us. not a problem, except he really throws himself about and i am three months pg, so beginning to feel it a bit. we'll try the fairy, too. thank you!

great idea beagle

Oh I'm definitely going to try tonight! DD is almost 2.5 and so far there hasn't been a night with no waking or drama of some sort. She doesn't come to our bed, she just wakes up and start crying or shouting for mum or dad, and god forbid if mum appears when she's shouting for dad... then screaming until she gets what she wants, which could be up half an hour, but that's it - she'll get only me from now on and she can be mad as long as she wants. Don't get me wrong- if I try to comfort her she is starting to scream even more and tries to hit me... our DS is 10 and from 8 months he slept from 7 to 7 and I thought I am a great mum... Ha haaa!! And then comes his sister to explain to me that it's not only down to parenting, children are different... I've no idea how we lasted that long but this has to stop. She's got her own "big girl" bed, which she loves, so wish me luck!! Oh, and it's not because she's scared, we tried with lights on, lights off, dimmed lights, it's all the same..

Ups, just saw the posts are from 2007... Aaaaaanyway:)

Hopefully the OPs child is now sleeping through

Hope so:) It worked for a second night with us so thank you OP!!!