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View Full Version : Night wakings-3 year old



Rutlym
08-13-2008, 07:33 AM
I'm brand new to these boards, so, hi! A little background...
My daughter is 3 and two months. She went in a big girl bed a little later than most, just after she turned 3. She was doing really well with it for awhile but now is waking up at least once a night and coming into my bedroom and just sort of standing there. When my husband or I wake up and see her there we take her back to her room and put her right back in bed. The last week though, she's been having full on temper tantrums (I'm talking at 2:30am) when we try to put her back in bed. SHe eventually goes in and never sleeps with us, but we're finding this very disturbing. We can't put a gate up at her door or block her from leaving her room because she's potty trained and has to have bathroom access.

Any ideas on what I can do to stop this? Is it a phase? We thought initially she might be sleepwalking because she goes back to bed so easily, but these complete meltdowns (similar to what might happen during the day) make us think that she's awake, at least partially. Do we just not make a big deal about it and keep putting her back in bed?

We used to have such a great sleeper and now we're dealing with this, on top of getting up a full hour earlier than she used to when she was in her crib.

Thanks in advance for your help!

ra11en
08-13-2008, 01:37 PM
Have you asked her what's waking her up or why she doesn't want to sleep in her bed? Few years ago I would have thought it ludicrous to be asking a 3yr old anything, but I've learned that my almost 2yr DD always feels better when I ask her what's wrong, even if I have to fill it in for her myself. She has sudden night wakings from nightmares, and when I ask her if she had a bad dream or ask her if she was scared she always settles down almost immediately. One night I thought to ask her why she was scared and she let me know she didn't like where the night light was! When I moved it, feeling stupid for thinking she really meant what I thought she meant, she then thanked me and went back to sleep!

I would reassure her and ask her why, then try to figure out a plan from there.