Posted by SleepyDad on October 09, 2007 at 10:15:57:Hi,
I have a two year old daughter who has always been a really good sleeper...sicne the age of about two months she has generally slept through the night.
Naps she is not so good at...she is very resistant to the idea. If she falls asleep mid-day (usually only happens while in the car), she will generally only sleep for about an hour. 9 days out of 10 she does not get a nap, and will fight it if the idea is suggested.
About 12 days ago she started waking up around 3am. Unlike other times in the past when this has happened, she is NOT falling back to sleep on her own fairly quickly...she screams for Mommy and just keeps screaming until Mommy goes to see her...for more than an hour if we let her...then a quick cuddle and a few soft words, maybe a refill of her milk, and she goes back to sleep.
This is driving us nuts. It has happened every single night since it started about 12 days ago, and we cannot think of anything that has changed in her routines or environment.
We want her to learn that she needs to make herself fall back asleep if she wakes up, and not to cry or disturb Mommy and Daddy unless it's really necessary...but we also want her to know we are there for her if she does actually need us. We don't know how to accomplish both things...they seem to need contradicting approaches.
If we leave her for a while the crying just continues and grows in intensity.
If we attaned to her right away we are afraid it will reinforce the behaviour.
I read about night terrors, but I am not convinced that is the case here. She does not seem terrified, just awake and unhappy. She does appear to be fully awake and lucent when we do finally go into see her...not confused or disoriented.
Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome...
Thanks!
- Re: 2 year old waking up at 3am...help! tb 19:25 8/17/08 (0)