2.5 year sleep regression / night wakings - any success stories?

[Lasm2016]

Hi there,

My daughter is 29 months.  She has never been a great napper but she has always slept in the night very well.  She went through sleep regressions at 4 months, 8-10 months and 18 months but this one now is definitely the worst and, now I have a baby I am struggling to know what to do and so tired I am getting grumpy with her which I feel VERY guilty about.

I think a couple of things are causing it
- new brother 5 months old; she has started to say she doesn't want me to leave her and she wants to be in my bedroom with her brother
- nightmares about dinosaurs; she thinks they are coming to eat her and I hear her in her sleep saying "don't eat me!"
- dad travels with work; having not travelled for a number of weeks (brother born, xmas etc) he has ramped up his travelling and she asks where daddy is. 

I know that the first two are pretty common place and I am just wondering if there are any success stories out there or tips. 

She generally goes to sleep okay - wants me to stay with her until she falls asleep (which is also new) but the biggest thing is the night waking.  Worst case was from midnight to 3.30am.  Last night wasn't too bad - she was awake from 3.30-4.30 but she then woke her baby brother and so I was up trying to get him to sleep until 5.30.

Thanks in advance for any help

[Lindsay27]

Is she still napping hun?  What's her usual daytime routine?  It's normal at this age to have a shift in sleep needs so if she's napping it might be time to think about capping it.

[Lasm2016]

she dropped the nap quite a while ago, only napping once in a blue moon or nodding off in the car for 20 mins if she’d had a busy weekend. He last few days she has napped around a hour but that’s only since she’s been losing out on avg 2-3 hours sleep a night so just can’t get through the day without it when she’s up that long at night

[Lasm2016]

Please can anyone help? Nap or no nap the night wakings are getting worse. Generally it’s arpind 3.30 she wakes up. Tonight is the first night I haven’t been able to get her back to sleep so that’s us up for the day from 3.30am and she’s woken her brother up too

[Lasm2016]

Anyone out there able to help?

I’ve now moved my son in to her room as we thought it was because she was feeling left out. It worked a dream the night before last and she slept through (even though he didn’t which is strange) but last night she was in our bed again at 4.30am

I don’t mind her co sleeping now and again but I’m worried it will become the norm. I know friends who have 10 / 11 year olds who get into their bed every night!

[Hayleys]

Hi

I'm afraid that I don't have any advice but hopefully someone will soon. It sounds like such a hard situation! I'm just bumping you up the posts board so your post will get more notice. Hope the friendly nudge gets you some help! X

[Haribo2012]

Hi there my 5 yr old was a getbin with us at 4.30 am from when he was 2.5 until prob 3.5 and he sleeps perfectly well alone in his own bed now. Not saying this is how it’s done but just so you know it doesn’t always last.

What’s her eventual WU and BT?

[katerinask]

Not sure I can offer much help, but just to let you know we had a similar phase a few weeks ago but our DD seems to be doing better now. She is now 27 months and also has an 8 month old baby sister, so similar situation to yours. Our nightwakings were prob related to her newfound imagination and fears... She called for me and didnt want to be left a alone. She sounded scared and also asked things like whats under the bed? She kept saying "somethings coming", so it really seemed loke genuine fear. I took her in with us a couple of nights, then also spent a few nights curled up on her armchair in her room with a blanket, because I just couldnt keep going back in so frequently. I talked to her every time she woke, really quickly before she got worked up just tellong her "Im here". We just continued like that, reassuring and saying that we are all here etc etc. She seemed to get over it by herselft... Although she still needs someone with her to fall asleep at BT.