My 3.5 year old wakes up every night, without fail.
To be fair, she actually goes to sleep nicely in her own bed, but when she wakes every night (not being dramatic, quite literally every single night), usually between 11pm and 1am, she won't settle back unless she's in our bed. I'm grateful that she will actually go back to sleep but it means "musical beds" every night and we always have a broken sleep. We even bought our other child a double bed, so when the Sleep Thief wakes, she goes in our bed with one parent, and the other parent goes in the sibling's bed with them. We have no other rooms/ beds and the sofa is a back breaker.
We have tried EVERYTHING - white noise, blackout blind, night light, no night light, food before bed, no food before bed, earlier bedtime, later bedtime, nap, no nap, altered "wake windows" - you name it, we've done it. Even a paid-for sleep coach told me "you've done everything I would suggest" 🙃
To those who say "cry it out" - no. Plus she is not the type of child who will "learn" and just go to bed in the end. She will quite literally scream the whole night if she has to, and that's disruptive and distressing for everyone involved, including waking her 6 year old sibling.
Everyone told me "she'll sleep when she starts school....." NOPE. She's been in full time school since September and nothing has changed.
She is also a Velcro baby and wants to be attached to us all night when she comes in our bed too.... sounds cute, is cute, but not when you need personal space to sleep 😂🙈
Is this just our life for now?