Teddy anxiety!

[lifeinmidthirties]

Hey- this is one that I'm totally stuck with so throwing it out there for some Mumsnet wisdom.

2.5 yo dd always been pretty good at sleeping through once asleep (with usual exceptions of illness and teething)

The last two weeks though she's been waking around midnight/1am and taking ages to resettle.

In these wake periods she seems fixated on the two teddies she has in her cot and what position they are in. She wants them tucked up under her little blanket, can't get it quite right then gets frustrated and upset.

One of us will go in, try to help, won't get it right, she yells at us and cries harder and so the cycle continues. I can't seem to settle her with singing/rocking/distraction/holding her hand. None of the normal things work and she just yells and cries until she completely wears herself out!!

What on earth could this be about?! She has one nap in the day about 1.5 hours and definitely still needs this.

Any ideas? Anyone had similar?

Just bumping incase anyone has any ideas ready for tonight!

Oh OP. My daughter isn’t much older and your post made me smile as it’s something she would do.

Do you talk to her about it before bed or just when she wakes? She’s potentially old enough to understand with a bit of repetition before bed “if you wake up tonight and your teddies are in the wrong place, please give them a big cuddle and go back to sleep” or something along those lines.

Failing that, time for a bed instead of cot? That might break the habit.

@Follycastle
Thank you!
I like your ideas and I'm going to try talking to her to see if she can understand first.
I did consider a bed - what age did yours change form a cot?

Mine was older than 2 but younger than 2.5 before we made the change to cot bed. It could cause other problems though so definitely try talking to her first and see how much she takes in. Fingers crossed!

If it's always around the same sort of time could you try gently waking her before it happens and then re-settle her? Are you sure she's actually awake when you go in? Does she have any fixation on the position of the teddies when she first goes to bed?

My five year old has these kind of fixations- has done since tiny.

It's partly a way of demanding our attention and partly a security thing, being able to control her environment I think

Thanks all.
So I talked to her today about it several times.
I said "if you wake in the night and teddies are in the wrong place, can you give them a cuddle and go back to sleep please"

She said, "no mummy, I will wake you up" 😂🤦‍♀️

I will keep trying!

...take the teddies out of her bed? We had this with DD3, arsefarting around in the wee hours with her soft toys, so we took them out of her bed and she threw a huge fit and then slept through.