My 3 year old daughter won't sleep?

Question

My 3 year old daughter, Savannah, won't sleep at night. Almost every night she's getting up and either coming into my husband and my bedroom or waking her 2 year old sister, Mikayla, up. I put her back in her bed, but an hour later, she's getting up. How can I stop this?

Answer 1

Is your bed time consistent? Is she taking naps during the day?  Is she waking to go potty initially, then having trouble getting back to her sleep?

If bed time is consistent, nap time is regulated, (or eliminated) drinks are rationed in evenings, and you are sure not to give her caffeinated or sugary drinks at dinner, then the final thing to do...

Is what you are doing... patiently and CONSISTENTLY... without fail, and she will return to bed.  Let her crawl in with you, and it only reinforces her getting UP.

It could be nothing more than a developmental phase.  Growing pains.

You can find info on pediatric sleep needs at this web site:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sle...

Answer 2

Put her back and tell her not to come back in. Its time to be a big girl in her big girl bed and sleep at night like mommy and daddy do. And not to wake her sibling anymore. A little discipline and firm but assuring words goes a long way. Sometimes you have to be the parent and be the bad guy and put your foot down. Its part of the job.  

Answer 3

simple jsut let her know that she's growing up now and that she needs to learn how to sleep on her own she'll get use to it after she is trained a bit more and disciplined

Answer 4

It's really tedious, but it pays off:

Take her back to her bed every single time, without interacting with her. Keep a neutral face. She needs to have the reward of interaction taken away so she will learn that it is not worth her while to come find you or to get up from bed. Don't get mad, as even getting mad is a reward as it is attention.

You might have to put her back to bed 100 times in 1 hour, or she may catch on in a few tries. Try to be consistent, too--keep doing this till her interruptions are down to 1 or 0 a night. Try also to make sure you and your husband are on the same page, and not accidentally sabotaging the process by talking, playing with her while putting her back to bed.

Good luck!

It gets better. You can prove it to yourself by jotting down the # of times you had to put her back in her bed each night. The # should decrease dramatically.