My 2 year old has had a regular bedtime routine for, well, 2 years. lol Just recently she had 3 night in a row where she did not sleep. She started sleeping again, but now fights bedtime like crazy! We do the same thing we've always done...bathtime, pjs, story time, then bedtime...but when we go to lay her down 90% of the time she starts crying hysterically and clinging to us. "No,no,no,no mama". If we put her in her bed, we have to shut the door or she will be in and out of her bed all night. (We have tried putting her back everytime and after 15 plus times in a row I got tired of it and shut the door.)
"Crying it out" has never worked with her. Even as a newborn, if she was left to cry, if she did fall asleep she'd wake up within an hour crying again. Most of the time she would not fall asleep, she'd just cry and cry - one time she cried for an hour and a half until I picked her up! (Side note: I was not home during this. I'd gone to the store, and my husband was watching her, and someone advised him to just let her CIO so he was trying to follow that advice. Obviously, we didn't try it again. On the other hand, crying it out worked great with my younger child, as long as he wasn't sick/hungry/needing a diaper change,etc)
We've tried an earlier bedtime, a later bedtime...just putting her in there and letting her cry...nothing has worked. She will not sleep with us. She thinks our bed is a trampoline and will jump on us all night. ;) Any suggestions? Or any ideas why she is suddenly so afraid/set against going to bed? TIA!
My daughter has changed her bedtime habits relatively recently as well. (She's almost 2.5) She never used to be able to use a night-light. She was always very light-sensitive. Then, out of the blue, she was terrified & we started using one. Solved the problem for a little bit. Now, we're using two night-lights.
Also, as time consuming as it may be, have you tried staying in the room with her until she falls asleep?
Hope this helps!
Try telling her why you must depart and be specific (you have to clean up the kitchen, walk the dog, etc). My daughter who went through sleep issues at 18 months got over it I believe because we told her we could stay for 5 minutes and then we had to do X. AND only one parent put her to bed. Can you lay down with her in her bed? At 18 months we ditched the crib and put a full size mattress on the floor and would lay down with her. It took about a month before we could start leaving sooner than 30 minutes at a time (that is how long it would take her to fall asleep).
Try a different routine, and set expectations. With my 3yr old, we tell him what we're going to do "time for a bath and stories buddy!", and then when that's done, he gets into bed and we tell him that we're going to sit for 5 minutes (and actually count it down for him) before we leave.
We also lock him in his room every night - otherwise he'd never stay in there.
But the counting down and setting expectations ahead of time really helped us.
I don't think you're dealing with fear yet, just exercising her independence. If she screams, you stay...thus, she gets to stay up later.
Change it up.
Sometimes it's a phase but you can't let her have control or you will ruin your credibility with her. I would suggest a sensory diet of activities to calm her central nervous sytem so it will send calming chemicals directly to her brain. Let me know if you need help getting one together.
