help i need advice asap

Jessica - posted on 12/12/2010

If she is taking 2 naps during the day maybe she is ready for only 1 mid-day and also put her to sleep later 8:30 or so. Good luck.

Pebbles - posted on 12/12/2010

how active is she during the day? i know when i have my daughter superactive through out the day she sleeps at night. try and keep her up with no naps.

Laura - posted on 12/12/2010

do you let her sleep with you? it may be a good idea to keep her sleeping through the night. I maybe wrong but that is what I did. now my 2 kids are well adjusted and out of my bed at 5 and 10 yrs old. both boys.

Talea - posted on 12/12/2010

I simply set my son's bedtime a little later, wouldn't let him take naps after a certain time during the day or only let him sleep a shorter amount of time, kept him busy and before bed a glass of warmed milk with a touch of honey, cinnamon and vanilla, the warm milk makes them drowzy ;)

Sarah - posted on 12/12/2010

If she has daytime napes try shortening or cutting them or maybe making her bedtime later. We try to spend time outside everyday that always tired my kids out. Could she be having nightmares? Is she distressed when she wakes up? Maybe there is something waking her.

Rosie - posted on 12/12/2010

My 3yo daughter is incredibly active during the day brecause she has a lot of play things. They consume her energy so at night she is worn out from all of the day-time playing.

Jaime - posted on 12/12/2010

Try shifting her bed time. I haven't read the other comments because I don't have time, but if it hasn't been suggested, try pushing her bedtime to 8pm or even 8:30...if she is still napping it could just be that her body is transitioning from this stage and she's not tired during her normal bed time. I don't suggest cutting the nap out, but adjusting the bed time might help with this. Hope she settles soon. It could also have to do with a growth spurt. Often times they get sore limbs from ligaments and muscles stretching...so maybe try rubbing her down with some massage cream at night to loosen those muscles and see if that helps. Johnson&Johnson makes a really nice lavender massage gel in a purple tube.

Darlene - posted on 12/12/2010

Maybe you should try putting her to bed a little later, some children do not require as much sleep as others. My twins would sleep 8-9 hours at that age and if I let them nap, then they would be up all night like yours. Cut out napping or cut down the amount of nap time and see if that helps, maybe try an 8:30 bedtime. I always watched my nephew sleep 12 hours straight and asked the doctor why my twins didn't do this. He said that not all children require the same amount of sleep. Find a routine that works for you. Good luck!

Deanna - posted on 12/11/2010

Cut back her naptime or just flat out take it away. Also, wear her out before bed and put her to bed a bit later like 8:30 or 9. It does seem to late for someone her age to be up but I let mine stay up as late as 9 or whenever they start to look wiped. Then it is to bed. We still get up for potty or water but we are working on that as well.

good luck and god bless

Ally - posted on 12/11/2010

thank you guys! all this info is very helpful...to answer some of your questions...we co-sleep she sleeps in the middle of me and my hubby, she hasnt done this for long just the past 3 months? ill say....um she learning words everyday katherine but thats really the only thing shes leanring.the sex life thing cracked me up thanks guys needed that laugh. she could possibly be going through a groth spurt ill try some ofthese things and see which ones work...thanks alot again you all were alot of help!

Katherine - posted on 12/10/2010

There is a sleep regression around two years old. http://www.askmoxie.org/2009/04/2year-sl... All I can say is that this too shall pass. Get her outside, running around as much as possible. Start with an hour, and move it up if needed. It's cold here, but my local mall has a squishy play area my two year old just loves, so we go there a lot.

She may also be having a developmental milestone that's keeping her awake. Is she learning anything new?

Mechelle - posted on 12/10/2010

how much does she sleep during the day? You could shorten her nap time, and put her to bed a little later. I also like the suggestion of keeping it dark, no talking, etc when she wakes up so she understands it's night.

Crystal - posted on 12/10/2010

My 3 yr old is the same way...she wakes between 2-3 times a night and I feel like I have a newborn still! It sucks. So I spoke with our pediatrician about it, and she suggested Melatonin. If you read about it, it always says, don't use with children. But if my Dr. was suggesting, I was ok with it. Its suppose to help them sleep continuously through the night. Unfortunately, it hasn't completely solved my problem, but she goes back down faster after waking. So that is helpful. Maybe ask your Dr.?

Lisa - posted on 12/10/2010

I love Renae's suggestion. Never thought that maybe sleep cycles were off. We're going through this with our 2 year old. He's waking up at 4 am. At first he would cry until we came downstairs but now the last two weeks he just comes upstairs and crawls into bed with us. He has no problem falling asleep in his own bed, just apparently decided he doesn't like waking up there. Nice thing about this is that he normally wakes up at 6 am but when he comes upstairs he sleeps until 7 :)

Briana - posted on 12/10/2010

Have you tried keeping her up later? I had this problem as well, I put a noise machine in my daughters room which helped a great deal.

Jennifer - posted on 12/10/2010

My son went through phases where he would wake up in the middle of the night. I made it clear that it was still bedtime. No noise, no lights, no talking....I would rock him back to sleep and if that didn't work I would take him to bed with me. We would snuggle and he'd fall back asleep there. I also figured out a few times that he was hungry (growth spurt). I always give him some milk and a healthy snack before getting ready for bed. I also shortened his daytime naps and moved his bedtime up 30 minutes. Then he was tired enough to sleep through the night. Good luck.

Candy - posted on 12/10/2010

We co-sleep and let me tell you my sex life is just fine. You can have sex in alot of other places then your bed room.;)

Casey - posted on 12/10/2010

We went through this same thing a few months ago with our son and it did my head in, when he woke up he'd carry on until I got him up and then we would have to sit up until ungodly hours watching movies until he was ready to go back to bed and then we would both be crabby the next day.
Eventually I got fed up with it all and started to fight back, every time he got up (his in a toddler bed) I would take him straight back to bed and tuck him in again and walk out (no talking to him or cuddling) it took us a couple of weeks but eventually he realised that he was not going to get anything good out of getting up during the night, now his sleeping through the night in his own bed and he sleeps from 7:30pm through til 6:30am occasionally he'll still get up during the night but I just take him straight back to bed and he stays there.
Also I wouldn't start co-sleeping with her now if you can avoid it, I had my son sleep with me sometimes when his dad was away working and it was a nightmare cause if you let them sleep with you a couple of times then they will very quickly learn that that is where they sleep and it is sooooo hard to break the habbit and also you can kiss your sex life and a good nights sleep goodbye.

Renae - posted on 12/10/2010

She is waking at the same point during her sleep. 6 hours into night sleep I would guess that she is waking on about her 5th or 6th sleep cycle as she comes from deep into light sleep.

Put her to bed half an hour earlier or later and at slightly different times, just to throw her clock off a little. Once she stops waking go back to a consistent bedtime.

If that doesn't work, go and watch her sleep from about 11pm. Watch for the REM sleep stage (twitching, deep breathing, rapid eye movements, fluttering eyelids), and wait for this stage to pass and her for to fall into deep sleep (she will go limb and breathing will become short and shallow), 10 minutes into deep sleep, nudge her awake, try not to fully awake her, just so she stirs. This will force a new sleep cycle and avoid the point when she normally wakes. Do this every night for 2 weeks. If this doesn't work, get back to me and I'll give you a few more suggestions.

PS, I'm assuming this started recently, she hasn't always done this since infancy and did sleep through at some point.

Candy - posted on 12/10/2010

Does she sleep lone? Have you tried co-sleeping? When ours wake up at night they were allowed to sleep in our bed with us. Doe she have a night light? It maybe to bright. When ours fall asleep before we go to bed,we turn off their night light. That way if they wake up they cant see and lay back down. Good luck