2 year old cries every night upon waking up

[Anonymous]

My 2 year old needs me to cosleep, and she wakes up crying everytime in her room she finds out I don’t sleep next to her on the bed. She goes back to sleep right away if I go to her bed right away. If not, she keeps crying to wake up everyone. I cosleep with her every night, and then I sneak away when she falls asleep. Because we have another kid sleeping next to her room, I have no choice but go immediately to her whenever she cries at the middle of night, and I would say she cries 1-2 times every night from 9pm to 7am. She cries at 7am when wakes up as well, but I don’t care about that one because kids go to daycare/school.

Any tips?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2 year old needs me to cosleep, and she wakes up crying everytime in her room she finds out I don’t sleep next to her on the bed. She goes back to sleep right away if I go to her bed right away. If not, she keeps crying to wake up everyone. I cosleep with her every night, and then I sneak away when she falls asleep. Because we have another kid sleeping next to her room, I have no choice but go immediately to her whenever she cries at the middle of night, and I would say she cries 1-2 times every night from 9pm to 7am. She cries at 7am when wakes up as well, but I don’t care about that one because kids go to daycare/school.

Any tips?

I say this without any harm intended but this is the type of shi% that gives cosleeping parents a bad name.

She is crying for you because you snuck out. Like how is this hard?

Let her know that you will lay with her until she falls asleep and that you will be downstairs if she wakes up.

For the morning wakeup are you still beside her?

[Anonymous]

If you don’t want to cosleep, stop doing it. She doesn’t “need” it.

[Anonymous]

Or, just decide that you're going to do this and commit to it.

[Anonymous]

Don't lay in bed with her until she falls asleep. Sit in a chair or lay on the floor, and then shorten the time you'll sit there before you tell her you're leaving. Let her know that you'll be downstairs or in your room.

[Anonymous]

Either put her in your bed and cosleep or put her to bed and leave. You're making her more confused.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PPs. It might take a few rough nights of tears to reset expectations, but don't worry about waking your other kids. A few nights of disturbed sleep for your other kids is fine if it gets everyone sleeping better. I had a similar experience where I was rocking my (older) baby back to sleep several times each night because I didn't want the crying to wake up my older kid. Eventually, we just had to let the baby cry a bit as nothing else was getting him to sleep well. Shockingly, our older child never woke up despite the proximity of their rooms.