NW again!

[mjjm]

our 27 mos old daughter has been sleeping through the nights mostly, with the odd occassion of NW which never lasted for more than 2 days.  She goes to sleep indep and has a lovey.  In the last couple of wks, she's been waking up 1-2 X every few nights and nightly in last 3 nights crying until we go in.  We would go in and reassure her, sometimes she'll ask to be cuddled, sing a song or so and then go back to sleep indep.  My question is how would I know whether she's waking because of nightmares or whether it's becoming a habit now and how I can eliminate that?

there has been changes in our family dynamics...she's has a 3 mos old baby sister, transitioned to a floor mattress 1 mos ago, watches more dvd's (age appropriate). 

thanks for your help/suggestion.

[deckchariot]

Can you post her routine?  It could be a routine issue.  It sounds like she's had a lot going on in the last few months, so some of it could just be adjusting to the new sib and the new bed.

hth
michelle

[mjjm]

she usu wakes betw 7-8, occ after 8am.  We don't wake her up as this seems to cause her to wake earlier in subsequent days, at least that seems to be our experience with her.  Then she goes down for a nap @ 1pm (sometimes later if she's slept in or if she's having trouble going down @ 1 but usu by 2:30pm).  She usu sleeps for ~ 1 hr but occ for up to 2hr.  Her bedtime is ~8pm (by the time she's down, I would say it's ~ 8:15).

yes you're right that there's been lots of changes for her but she seems to be copping well with all that.  She loves her baby sister and we bought her a special blanket for her 'big girl's bed' which she loves.  Although I'm sure she's missing mommy time.

thanks!

[deckchariot]

Her routine looks pretty good for her age.  At her age, 1.5 for a nap is really about "average", so if she occasionally does 2 hrs, perhaps it's all working out anyway.  Nights are usually 10.5 - 11ish.

My hunch is the frequent NWs are due to all the changes.  I'd try to give her as much mommy time at bedtime as possible (I know that's hard), and be really consistent with how you handle the NWs.  At this age, it's soooooooo easy to establish a prop.  So I would suggest that you and dh decide on how to handle the NWs and stay consistent with that.  We've found that extra cuddles in the night pretty quickly develop a habit.  However, if she's having a hard time adjusting, you may want to make some allowances there.  It sounds like you cuddle, and sing.  I might say, just go in and ask if she's ok, quick re-tuck and out.  And then wean back off of that as she adjusts to the bed and her sister.

[mjjm]

thanks for your suggestion.  yeah, I'd agree with you and also she knows that when her baby sis cries, we go in to settle her and so perhaps she's wanting the same treatment.  As well, I think the noise wakes her up in the night when I have to go into the baby's room to feed etc.  She's a light sleeper to begin with and her baby sister can scream pretty loud!!!
We've been just rubbing her back and staying with her for a min or 2 in the past few nights and then she would go back to sleep.  We'd just hope that we wouldn't even need to do that since we know she can sleep indep; however, I guess we just need to give her the attention for now.

[deckchariot]

if the noise is waking her - have you thought about trying a white noise machine?  Or even just radio static or a loud fan will sometimes do the trick.  Bust most likely, it will just take some time for her to adjust.