What the hell can I do to make this child sleep? Every night she is like this - just won't settle to sleep. She wakes up her brothers (8 and 7) and arses around until eventually I lose my temper and only then (usually around this time of night) will she settle down and go to sleep.
We've put a stair gate on her doorway but she can get through it. It seems to make no difference whether she's had a nap during the day or not. We've brought her bedtime right back to try to make sure she's really tired - no good. We've brought it forward - no good. I put her back in her bed with no eye contact and no conversation - she gets up, I do it again until by the 20th time I either lose my temper or give up. Too tired to see it through to the 1000th time which I guess is what she neeeds.
She doesn't have blackout curtains but hopefully they are on the way to being ordered.
I reckon if we put a lock on the door she would settle into a sensible routine after a few nights - but I just can't bring myself to go through with it. I'd hate to be locked in a room and can't do it to her.
The household has descended into total anarchy. I have a new baby (10 days old) who is much, much easier than this (DD's sleep habits were like this before the baby arrived).
Any ideas?