My 3 year old dd had the flu last week and was just miserable. during that time her sleeping went to pot--dropped her nap and was up several times at night. She is now pretty much better, with the exception of a mildly runny nose, which seems to bother her more during the day than at night, but she is still waking between 3-4 times at night. She had been napping again but earlier than usual (around 1:15 instead of 2 pm) and for 2 hours instead of her usual 1 hour nap, but then she attended pre-school this morning for the first time since being sick and she didn't nap this afternoon!
I'm not sure how to deal with the night wakings--it hasn't been an issue for more than 1 year (yippee!) and my old strategies don't seem appropriate with a 3.5 year old. When she wakes she usually wants me to tuck her in again and give her a kiss although once a night she will want to pee, something that wouldn't happen before she got sick. I've been putting her in bed early when she doesn't nap and she drops off straight away which suggests to me that she is still overtired. We have told her that now that she's better she needs to sleep through the night, but given the famous contrariness of toddlers, perhaps that was the wrong approach!
She really needs to catch up on her sleep after being sick but I'm at a bit of a loss. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
