At my wits end with 25 month old Daughter!

[Purple_Rose]

Hi everyone

My daughter just turned 2 last September, she has been on EASY since she was 6months old. I am now expecting number 2 and I’m due in January. She is fully aware that there is a baby growing in mummy’s belly.
DD wakes at 8am and has a nap at about 1pm for about an hour and a half. Her bedtime routine includes a bath, reading ,cuddle with mummy last trip to the bathroom. She goes to bed at 8.30 and is down by 9pm and sleeps straight through the night

She sleeps in a toddler bed in our room, because we are currently in a 2 bedroom flat as our house is being built and due to finish in January. My niece who is 11 yrs old and our housemaid live with us so they stay in the 2nd room, which is why DD sleeps in our room.

My problem:
For the past couple of days it seems that DD requests lots of things before sleeping and wakes up during the night. Before all she used to ask for was a drink of water, or a trip to the bathroom for a wee. However lately before putting her to bed she will ask for the following:
-   A drink of water
-   Have cream put on her feet and socks
-   And asks to go to the toilet for a poo (even though we just went for a wee) and of course she does nothing. She refuses to pee and poop in her pull ups!
*She is totally toilet trained except at night she wears pull ups but still wakes up at night to ask to go to the bathroom.

When she wakes up during the night and asks for any of the following but mostly all of them one after the other:
A drink of water
Toilet to pee
To sleep in mummy and daddy’s bed

Problem is when she wakes up and asks for stuff and I refuse she throws tantrums ( throwing herself on the floor, or backwards) and wont clam down. I have tried talking to her to get her to calm down, by holding her down, or hugging her but as soon as I leave her she starts all over again.

Last night she woke up twice and didn’t sleep until after an hour. The night before she woke up at 1.30am and didn’t go down until 3am!!

I am trying to keep cool but I just cant its too much , I end up getting really upset and start shouting at her and forcing her into her bed. I really cant take it anymore I need your help pls, what can I do to stop this behaviour? 

[Kimberly®]

Well I would say the refusal to pee or poo in her pull up is a good thing I wish DD would do that  It could be she's finding herself feeling the need to go at night and thats why she wakes to go potty. I know I wake up at night and have to go quiet often. If she's wanting a drink before bed (also a normal thing as far as I know) that would lead to the need to go at night. Congrats may be in order, she may actually be telling you she's ready for night training.

Its hard when she has to be in the same room, I can see that adding to the situation right now. If you give her what she want, ie to go potty does she go back to sleep?

As for drinking at night my DD used to need that ALL the time, she's since grown out of it, but when she was doing it all we did was put a sippy of water in the bed with her, then when she woke she would drink and go back to sleep. I still find myself leaving one in there, usually she'll drink it in the AM.

As for sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed. Thats a tough one. Its one you and your DH have to deside is or isn't worth the fight. If you don't want it, you will have to stick to your gus as it were.

DD for example went through a faze after she was sick where she wanted to sleep in mommy's bed. While she was sick I let her, partly cause it was easier, partly cause she was sick. When she was better we then set about putting her back into her bed. DH was off midnights at this point so beside it being a situation we didn't want, we also didn't have the room. It took a few nights, and some screaming on her part, tears on mine, but she successfully transitioned back into her own bed.

The only difference here was that DD does have her own room, but she knows how to open the door and can easily come to ours.

With her being in your room the task will be harder. She's usuing this as a means of attention seeking aswell. IE she calms untill you go. You may need to try a modified version of gradual withdrawl. Spend a few nights by herside till she sleeps, and then slowly move away untill you are once again in your bed and she in hers.

I'm not saying it'll be easy or fast, but you can get there. And you wont have to force her to stay in bed. Just gently lay her back down when she gets up, like with PU/PD, just only the PD part.

hth

[Purple_Rose]

Thank you Kimberly for your advice and to answer your question

Its hard when she has to be in the same room, I can see that adding to the situation right now. If you give her what she want, ie to go potty does she go back to sleep?

Yes if I give her what she wants ie toilet, drink of water she falls asleep the only thing I don’t give in to is her asking to come into our bed. We don’t want her in our bed, as I said we are expecting the baby in January so I cant have her in our bed.

Last night was not so bad I did her usual bedtime routine, bath, read a book, cuddle with mummy, put cream and socks on her feet, had a drink of water and put her to bed. She slept well and only woke up through the night for a wee (twice) and went back to sleep in her own bed without a fuss! 

I hope this continues as I was really going out of my mind and dreading putting her to bed!

If I was to start night training how am I to do that?

[Kimberly®]

to be honest I'm not sure. We're not ready for that just yet. But if you go to the Potty training boreds I'm sure you can find lots of support and advice there.

[sandraorion]

We have a non-spill sippy cup that DS takes to bed with him. Actually, the cup next to bed. He wakes up, drinks a bit and sets it down without help.

also, can you have a little potty next to her bed that she can use on her own?