(Warning: This post is a little long). . . So here's the situation. Our sweet little Lulu is having some MAJOR sleep issues. This is a girl who was sleeping through the night without any problems. We'd read stories, give a hug and kiss, turn out the lights, close the door and wouldn't hear a peep from her until morning. BLISSFUL!
Now let me paint a picture of what's been going on over the past 5 months. Lexi got a new room to make way for Brooklyn. "It's the new baby," you say, and we've thought about that and that is why we let her take her crib with her to the new room until she got used to sleeping in there. Shortly after moving her into there, 3 members of the family (I'm not one of them) thought it would be a great idea to teach her how to climb out of her crib. "Not good," I thought, "that's when the jack-in-the box syndrome starts". Sure enough, she learned quickly. My view is that once they know how to do this, you might as well switch them to the big bed to avoid injury. We knew it would be rough at first because we went through it with Jackson(3weeks as a matter of fact)and many more weeks of sitting on the floor by his door until he was asleep. But that's another story that we've tried to forget.
So now we've got a 2 year old sleeping her new pretty, big girl bed literally screaming and crying every night. Did I mention she climbs out of her bed, lays on the floor by the door and screams so that the sound is magnified? We tried leaving the door open just a little so she'd have light from the hall but all that produced was 2 hours of putting her back into bed every night. I was finally firm and made the decision we needed to go back to how we used to do it. Lights out, door closed. The last couple of weeks were better as we had a bedtime chart on the door. If she didn't scream or cry after we closed the door she got a sticker. After a week she was doing great and earned her "Princense" (how Lexi says princess) book. But the last couple of night she's back to the screaming, and is now waking up numerous times a night. I would just let her scream it out but she's already waking up half the family and I'm afraid she's going to start waking up the boys also.
Both Kurt and I have tried sleeping in her room to see if there's something that's waking her up, but have come up empty handed. We make sure she's had plenty to eat and drink before she goes to bed and have been consistent in our bedtime routine. We've thought that maybe it's night terrors but don't know if there's anything to do about that. I've read books and tried charts but not a whole lot is working right now. If anyone out there has something that has worked for your child or children, please share!! Sleep is so important and we want ours back!
Signed,
Desperately Seeking Sleep
1 year ago
