What do I do with a 3yo who wakes up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep?

[alarkaspree]

Dd is 3.6, has always, with one or two blips, been an excellent sleeper. But recently she has been often waking up in the middle of the night and saying she isn't sleepy and wants to get up. I think she does try to get back to sleep - she will usually be quiet for 20-30 minutes after having a quick cuddle before she gets frustrated and I have to go in to her again.

Last night she was up at 2.45, I gave her a drink, took her to the loo, etc., she settled down. Whole process was repeated at 3.20. At 4 I gave her a torch, two books and a bagel. She ate the bagel, read the books, turned off the torch and went back to sleep at 5.

(Then ds woke at 5.25 ).

So, is giving her a book to read utter madness, or a good idea? Instinctively it seems wrong to me but I know if it was me struggling to get back to sleep I would read for a bit and it would probably help.

Any other ideas?

I just took mine into bed with me and she went back to sleep. The phase seems to have passed now. she's just four.

bring into your bed

dd2 is a pain in the arse at various times

we have good week/bad week

I do not think you should pander to her at all, do not feed or give books

do drink and loo, then try to settle in her bed, if not working bring into yours

no chatting etc

make it as boring as possible and it should pass (HA! famous last words)

DD did this a few weeks ago, kept saying the babies (dts) were waking her up they were both fast asleep. She'd then come up with as many reasons for being awake as she could...
we didn't feed the fish, her toy was too big/small/lumpy, we didn't brush her teeth properly etc etc.

It went on for a week or two then just stopped, all back to noemal -7:30pm - 7am routine resumed.
Hope your dd gets back to normal soon.

I have had the duvet is too soft

I have had 'penguin is upside-down' (he wasn't!)

I find bringing her into our bed tends to make her worse - she sees it as an opportunity to tell me a story - only once in her life have I brought her into our bed and she has gone back to sleep. And that was when she had been sick most of the night. So this basically means that both dh and I will be awake and one of us needs to be bright and cheerful for the 5.30 start with ds!

I think part of the problem is that she shares a room with ds and he is quite a light sleeper so I'm reluctant to let her yell too much.

Maybe I need to get her a bigger bed so I can get in with her.