27 Month Old Sleeping Problems

[jjhillman1210]

Hello,

I am in need of some advice on my daughter's sleeping issues.  I used the baby whisperer when she was a baby and it worked wonders! She did great sleeping up until a couple weeks ago.  Currently, she is 27 months having nap issues at her dad's house and bedtime issues with me (mom's house).  My concern is her bedtime, I am not sure if it is separation anxiety or if I did some accidental parenting.  I was reading through the threads and I read some people give milk before bed, should I do that?  Then I also was reading about Walk In/Walk Out so how exactly does that work?

When she goes to bed with me, she constantly asks for me and says "Mamma, where are you?"  I will tell her I'm right here (through the door) and it is bedtime.  Sometimes she just screams Mamma. Once I show her I'm near (by opening the door), she smiles, runs around, and acts likes it is a game. Sometimes I will rub her back but then she tells me no, gets up and starts running around again. Every once in a while she will get herself stuck between the bed and the wall so I go in and help her. She immediately stops crying and starts running again.  So I think she may get stuck on purpose to get me in there.

Our wind down routine starts at 6:15 with bath time, then her nebulizer (she has asthma), then change into pajamas.  She then facetimes with her dad (7pm), has a snack, change her diaper, then read stories.  She's normally in bed by 7:30 at the latest. If she doesn't stay in bed while we read stories then I tell her we are done with stories and it is night night time.  This has been happening every night for the past couple weeks, she will just run around in her room instead of reading. So I stop the stories when she gets out, give her a hug and kiss, then put her in bed.  Then she starts crying and asking for me.

Her daily routine is:
WU  8am
Nap 12:30 to 2:30 - sometimes she naps for 1 hour sometimes 2. 
Dinner 5:30
Wind Down  6:15
Bedtime 7:30 at the latest

Before she had issues, she would talk and read books on her own in bed until about 8 then put herself to sleep.  Lately she just seems beside herself. So any advice is welcome.  Thank you so much!

[jessmum46]

I would say she may well be UT at bedtime.  She typically has a less than 12h day from WU to when you put her in bed, with up to a 2h nap.  To put it in context my DD (admittedly not high sleep needs) was napping perhaps only twice a week at that age, and had stopped napping altogether by 29 months.  I wouldn't start milk at bedtime or do anything differently, you sound like you are handling it just fine but a cut to her nap or a later BT may well be in order.  Depending on what suits you better I would try either pushing BT later so you put her down at 8pm instead of 7.30pm, or cut her nap to a consistent 1h and see if that helps things.  You say she has issues with naptime at Dads - is she resisting the nap and playing around?  I would push the nap later if so as her nap is on the early side - only 4.5h A from WU. 

Hope that helps