3 year-old waking up every.single.night. Pls help!

[Anonymous]

Going through it also. No real advice. Our almost 6 dd did it at age 2.5 and now our almost 4 ds is doing it. He is a lot worse than she and tries nasty temper tantrums in the middle of the night that also wake up our baby. We are determined to keep him out of our bed though since we just got the prior child out! We are on night three of the super nanny approach and it hasn't gotten better or easier. What is worse is that he wakes up even earlier now.

[Anonymous]

My now 3 yo DD, hasn't been a great sleeper since birth, until last year, when I started sleeping with her in our basement bedroom (I realized that she slept better in colder rooms, with no blankets on and basement was much better than the top floor bedroom).
2 months back, we switched back to our master br on the top floor (due to renovations in the basement) and she has been ok until 2 nights ago. She has been going back to screaming, crying uncontrollably, trying to push us away as if she has had a nightmare (this was the exact same situation almost every night between until she turned 2.5 yrs). I'm going to see 1-2 more nights or else will move back into the basement and hopefully the night terrors don't continue.

Im sure you've already tried many solutions.. give this a chance if you like. I truly feel for you, it's almost impossible to stay awake on such days and be positive. Hope and pray that you are able to find a solution soon. Take care , stay strong and keep smiling

[Anonymous]

My advice is go big or go home. 10 stickers to a prize for that age isn't enough of a reward for him. It'll take forever in his mind and won't be worth it. Go to the dollar store or target dollar bin and make a prize box and he can pick out a prize in the morning if he goes through the night without waking you up. Trust me, the enticement of seeing the toys and stickers and art stuff will encourage him to power through and the immediate gratification of getting something in the morning will make him want to do it again the next night. We did this for my one kid who just wouldn't sttn at that age and it worked like a charm in a week, and he didn't keep demanding toys after that, it just tapered off and he was a better sleeper.

[Anonymous]

Does he still nap? My three year old finally stopped the mid-night waking nonsense when she dropped her nap.

[Anonymous]

We had a period of this around 3 with our previously great sleeper. I think it was triggered by the new baby's arrival, although it started at least a month after she was born.

We were zombies too. In the middle of the night we first did the silent walkbacks thing, then (I'm not proud to say) were just mean to DD. We spanked her once. We shut the door to her room and she sobbed herself to sleep on the floor. It was our worst time as parents. But 6 weeks later she was back to herself and not sleeping in our bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does he still nap? My three year old finally stopped the mid-night waking nonsense when she dropped her nap.

I love when people act like offering their advice without reading the original post is helpful

[Anonymous]

Went through this for about a month with one of our twins. It was awful. They had a light alarm (it turns green when they're allowed to get out of bed in the morning) and it had been working like a charm but all of a sudden she started getting up shortly after going to bed, in the middle of the night, and early in the morning. I'm not entirely sure why it eventually stopped, but I did start being a little harsher and simply putting her back to bed and reminding her before bed that she needed to stay in her room until the light went off and then rewarding her (with high fives and hugs) in the morning when she stayed in bed. Every kid is different, but in my experience with wake ups/difficulty going to bed, it always made it worse when I went in or rewarded the behavior (by letting her come in our bed, for example). So my advice would be to limit the talking when he wakes up, just get him back to bed, and remind him before bed each night of the importance of staying in his room. And get the alarm light if you don't already have it so it can serve as an end point for him.

[Anonymous]

You said this started a few months ago....as in when the baby was born/he realized the newborn was here to stay? It could be he's having a tough time with his new baby bro/sis.

Also, is he getting all of his energy out during the day? With a baby in the house now, are you still engaging g with him by playing chade, for example, after dinner, to get the wiggles out (you said you work, so I assume he's in daycare).