My 2 1/2 year old no longer likes to sleep. She began having sleep issues about 2 months ago when her new little sister came home. The 2 year old got better for a little while but the past few nights she has again fought with us about sleep.
We transitioned her to a big bed about a month before the baby was born and she was sleeping great-went right to bed and slept all night.
Now some nights it will take at least an hour to get her to sleep because she keeps getting out of bed. Other nights she might go to sleep ok but wake up in the middle of the night and keep getting out of bed until my husband actually will lie down on the floor next to her bed until she falls asleep. She is also waking up and coming into our room at 6 in the morning when she used to sleep until around 8.
When she does get out of bed and we try to put her back in bed she says she is scared but doesn't really tell us what she is scared of. I don't know if she really is scared or has just figured out that we will stay in her room if she is scared.
She does have a night light in her room and we have tried keeping the door open.
Naps have also become more of a fight and she used to nap without a problem and sleep for at least 2 hours. Now she fights going down for a nap and only sleeps for about an hour.
My husband and I are exhausted and don't know what to do. There will be a couple nights in a row where she sleeps well but then it starts all over again.
hey J. it sounds like she is a bit jellious of the new baby and all the time you need to give a new baby it will pass in time just pratice the back to bed thing the first time she get out tell honey it time to go back to bed kiss her hug her and put her back in bed any time after that just walk her back to bed with nothing said it will get better
My son did the same thing at about the same age.. he is almost 3 now and it was a few months ago. I think he was sincerely scared at first.. shadows on the walls etc. We let him have a pretty bright night light right next to his bed and allowed him to look at books. He would fall asleep that way. Then we started moving the night light away from the bed little by little so his room is much darker now. He does still get up really early though. :(
It sounds like she is having issues with the new little one. Maybe she feels like she is missing out on you, or that she isn't getting enough attention. Try to carve out some special time for the two of you to remind her that you ARE there for her, you DO love her tons and tons, and that you will protect her. As someone else said, they are only little once. Yes, you have to enforce rules, and you do need to help her understand the baby has different needs then a big girl...but it also sounds like she needs a little reassurance.
Congrats on the new baby!
Would you consider just keeping a bed on your floor and allowing her to sleep there. Maybe she feels she needs you more now than before with a new little one around? I still remember being afraid as a little one and sleeping on my parent's floor. It's such a small window of time that they're little.
Below are some wonderful resources and perspectives on sleep and children.
http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/17/40-days-afte...
http://parentingbabytosleep.blogspot.com/
http://www.naturalparenting.com.au/flex/journey-of-parent... (I wish I had read this years ago!)
A tremendous book on the subject of sleep is "The Seven O'Clock Bedtime." (unfortunately currently out of print, check libraries or Amazon.) Some other volumes that have some generally helpful ways of looking at parenting are "You Are Your Child's First Teacher" by Rahima Baldwin, and "Becoming the Parent You Want to Be" by Laura Davis.
A community of mothers dealing with subjects like this can be found at Indigo Forest, an Holistic Family Center in Ann Arbor; questions like these are one of the reasons we founded the store and class center several years ago. You can check us out at www.VisitIndigo.com
Here's to Napping!
B.
Definitely sounds like this is from the transition to having a new baby in your family. It will pass but she may never be like she was before. She's at a new place. I'd keep it as light as you can but be lovingly firm about her going to bed.
When she gets up early, I'd allow her into my room or bed. The sun is coming up early right now. Does she have room-darkening shades? Worth a try. She may be worried about whether she's as important to you and what you're doing with the baby when she's in her room away from you. She still doesn't ahve a strong sense of time and where you are when you're not there. I was a big one for leaving the door open but maybe that's because my oldest could do awful things to her room when she was mad about being in there. She's a doctor today - her brain didn't want to shut down for naps. She gave them up before 2 - drove me nuts! Now she loves to sleep after working so hard!
Attention and it is working. My 3 year old son did some similar stuff when we brought his brother home 3 months ago. It will pass, you have to be diligent regarding any rules you have set up prior to the baby coming home and stay strong.
She will figure out the dynamics of the new family soon and give up. It is hard not being number one any more. It took almost 3 months for us.
Mine stopped taking a nap at this age. I was so tired that we would read a book in the chair in her room and then cuddle and I would fall asleep (and so would she). I say give up the nap and start a quiet time rule (she has to stay in her room and play quietly for 1-2 hours, sometimes I made her stay on her bed and read) that way you get the break that you need, she gets rest and sometimes will fall asleep. Along with no nap comes early bedtime, I was putting mine to sleep at 7:30 and she was getting up at the same time or a little later. It was nice to have the evenings quiet.
We put a baby gate up with the door open. We did the lay down with her or on her floor for a couple nights and let her sleep with us. What worked though was to let her just put her back to sleep. She would stand at her gate and yell, but we did't give in. It took 3 nights and she stopped getting up completely. Each night the crying got less until it did stop. I thought it sounded mean at first, but really it worked as long as we were consistant. Pretty much we had to do that with her nap and going down for bed too.
