3 year old will not go to sleep without me in the room

[jsorrow24]

My 3 year old dd will not go to sleep in her bed unless I stay in the room with her. Then sometime during the night if she wakes she wants to get in our bed. We usually just let her in because we have a 6 wk old who is waking us up for his feedings and my dh and I are just too tired to fight it and we let her stay. I have not read Tracy's book for Toddlers. Can someone give me some advice and techniques from Tracy's toddler book? How do I get my dd to let me walk out of the room and fall asleep on her on without us staying in there

[elfin]

A good friend of mine had this same problem.  What she did was explain to her son that it was time that he learned to fall asleep on his own.  She told him that she would sit on his bed for a couple nights, then stand next to his bed for a couple of nights, then stand in his doorway for a couple of nights, and then stand outside his doorway for a couple of nights.  It worked like a charm and within a couple weeks she would put him to bed and leave without any problems.  Does she have a lovey?  This will definitely help.

[imsmum]

I had the exact same thng with my then 3 year old and did the same thing as elfin's friend but we did have some major tantrums in the middle of the night when we tried to leave.  what really helped was explaining to my dd (in the morning during a quiet non-confrontational time) was that mummy and daddy needed their sleep otherwise they were grumpy and cranky all day.  Once she realized that she could lessen the chances of us being cross with her she settled down quickly!

[jsorrow24]

Thanks all. Elfin, I think I had read this in another post...I am going to try that tonight. Last night was horrible. My dh fusses with her and she just ends up getting upset. I told him tonight that he is putting 6 wk ds to bed and I will deal with our 3 year old dd. She is a mommy's girl and I am going to get her back on track. Since ds has arrived our schedules have been completely off, no bedtime routine, no dinner routine, and not much time for mommy and dd. I know she misses it. Plus, I don't want another child dependent on me for their bedtime. My dh who desperately wanted a son can now take care of his bedtime routine.

Thanks again!