Two Year Old Will Not Sleep in Her Bed

I agree with a nightlight, and have you tried sleeping in her room with her for a night or two? Just to see if it's the room, the bed, or needing comfort? If there's already a light in her room check out the room from her perspective, on the bed, and see if there's some strange shadows cast or something that might be invoking a vivid imagination that is frightening her.

Does she have a favorite animal to sleep with? If not - or even if she does - maybe a special trip to pick out a new one might help give you clues as to what's bothering her. If she picks out something that's obviously protective (dog, lion, etc...) she just might be scared of something.

Good luck!

My 3 year old is doing the same thing. We created the sleeping fairy. I talk to her like an imaginary friend when it's time to go to bed "oh look, the sleeping fairy is here to help you sleep in your own bed". I let my daughter decide if the sleeping fairy will sleep in her bed or on a blanket on the floor that I lay out. Then I make up that the sleeping fairy wants her red bear, and she chooses to share that one or trade for another bear. My daughter is afraid of "bad guys" (and screams like someone is taking her away sometimes - we've never had anything scary in our house and she hasn't watched any scary movies), and I tell her the sleeping fairy uses her magic to turn anything bad into toads so there is no way anything can hurt her in her room. We check her closet, under her bed, etc to show her no one is there.

When she does sleep through the night in her own bed from start to finish, the sleeping fairy leaves her a treat under her pillow. We've left things like her favorite candy piece to a small toy from the dollar section. Sometimes she stil screams and needs to sleep in our bed, and I tell her the sleeping fairy isn't going to come, and she says she doesn't care. Those nights, I either try to let her cry herself to sleep or after too long, I give in - I figure every mom has a battle to fight, and this isn't going to be mine. (I have other things I'm gaining ground on). She'll eventually want to sleep in her own bed if I keep up the big girl talk (how big girls sleep in their own beds, etc). We're talking about preschool soon - so that might change things too. (She does have a small brother right now, so the baby talk does start to come back in this adjustment period of a new sibling). She's still wearing pull ups too at night - so yet another hurdle...

Let me know if it works for you.

Hi T.
You said she told your mom she fell out of bed and it hurt. can you get a toddler rail for the side of her bed so she does not fall out. T.

T., my oldest son did the smae thing at about that age. not sure what was going on but we put a bright night light in his room et it seemed to help. good luck!

Maybe she would do better with a twin sized mattress on the floor? And a nice thick rug beside it so that if she did roll off, she wouldn't get hurt. You could make a big deal about getting her a new bed and let her help pick out sheets, pillows etc.

We use a baby monitor, night light, and lock my 2-year-old in her room at night (no flames please--if there were a fire, it is virtually certian that we'd have to rescue her through her bedroom window due to the layout of our house anyhow). We know if she needs us (which is rare, we usually don't hear a peep out of her all night), and she isn't able to roam the house getting into stuff when we can't supervise. Since we go and get her, there's never been a problem with her coming to sleep in our room. We are usually able to rock her for a little bit and put her back to bed without a fuss.

My daughter, also 2, was a wonderfull sleeper in her toddler bed until she got sick and I wanted her to sleep near me to make sure she was okay, That was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Now she only wants to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed and acts exactly like your 2 year does when we try to put her in hers.

Some things we have tried and they have been working so far:
We bought her Lucky Charms (Big Girls Cereal) and she only gets it when she sleeps in her big girl bed all night.

We got these wall stickers to put on her wall of princesses and she helped put them on next to her bed and loves them. If she cant sleep she looks at them and talks to herself.

I read her a book and give her a baby and tell her if she cant sleep then she is more then welcome to read her baby books until she does.

So far it has been working, occasionally she will wake up in the middle of the night and find her way to our bed.

My mom says, that they won't sleep there forever. Apparently we used to go to her bed and her and my dad used to kinda squish us and say there is no room, we started sleeping on the floor and then slept in our own rooms.

Good Luck I know what it is like going to work without any sleep...not fun.

M.

Falling out of bed would scare most little ones. They all seem to do it and they learn where the edge is so they don't fall out often. My suggestion would be to put the mattress on the floor and let her get use to sleeping on it. Make sure there isn't anything she could fall on if she did fall off the mattress and let her know that she will be safe. Once she doesn't roll off the mattress, she will be more comfortable when you put it back on the rails.

My suggestion is this: take her bed frame away completely, put a thick quilt on the floor (twice as long as her mattress is), put the mattress on one end of it, put the whole works in a corner of the room. Have her help bring her favorite doll and pillow and blankie in to complete the remodel. Now she won't feel like she is hurt when she falls out. Since she said she won't sleep there because she fell and it hurt, it is worth a try to address her concerns.

This whole process might go better if Grandma is able to tell your little girl that she thought of the idea and that it will solve her problem of getting hurt if she falls out. (Since she already had some luck getting her to talk about it).

(My son was an extreme roller at night. We ended up for a few weeks putting him on a large flat cushion with a big double layer of blankets all around to help him stay asleep when he would roll off the cushion.)