Am I the only one with a 3yr that wont sleep

[Astrid]

Almost 3 year old here and to quote Lulu, it is a circus to get her to sleep as well. She wants different books to be read, rather than the ones I have picked (the better ones to get her to sleep), she is in and out of the bed, wanting to be on my lap etc. Sometimes she is scared, other times hungry, light on, light off The list goes on. It takes 45min to an hour to have her asleep enough for me to leave the room, it has taken a year or more of working on her routine to get it that good.

[DiannaQ]

Mum to a known sleeper here too - I feel your pain can't offer any suggestions as nothing I do works either - lol

[mickyndan]

I hear you all girlfriends.... My DS sleeps on a mattrass on the floor next to my DH. My DH has to go to bed so my DS goes to bed and then my DH falls asleep too (my DH is usually asleep first LOL). My DS still wakes 1-2 times a night but we are going to bite the bullett soon. We have bought a GATE (yes, a GATE) to put on his bedroom door and we will be getting him to sleep in his OWN bed in his own room... ahhhh, what bliss!!!!

[anney]

My DD is almost 6 and the same as your DD. she has been the same since she was a baby ie. a shocker to get to sleep but thanks goodness, once she is asleep nothing wakes her. At 3 she would cry if one of us was not with her. When she was 4 she got better but sometimes she was really bad and I went into a meltdown many nights, because the same as you, could not get anything done until she went to sleep. many nights I would go in and lie down with her for a few minutes and I would fall asleep before her! Even now she is almost 6, she does not cry for us to be with her but will still lie there for 90 minutes without sleeping.

[littlelara]

Bec G, I had to laugh at your dd getting you to feel her tears, it's something Beth would do too. She'll put on a really pitiful voice and say "I'm sad now!" *sob* and it's all I can do not to laugh.
Mickyndan, we have a babygate on dd's room.
Until you mentioned it I thought we were the only ones and were perhaps a bit cruel doing it, but it seems to work for us now.
Quite often she falls asleep in the doorway and then we pop her into bed when we go, and at 'nap time' (for want of a better word) we leave her to her own devices. Sometimes she'll sit between the curtain and the window and look at books, sometimes she'll go to sleep. We figure as long as she's playing quietly it's ok cos we can't force her to sleep.
Luckily she's so used to this that she doesn't stress any more, but she used to and we'd be in and out of her room for upwards of an hour.
Good luck

[shorty]

....and i thought it would get better...ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jesswith6]

Bec

Bella is exactly the same! She will stay awake till 2 in the morning if she could because she "not tired mummy!'
I have tried everything, Ithe one thing that finally does work though is to get her tired enough that she needs to cuddle into me and have me sing to her! Even then it takes nearly 2 hrs!

[Janie]

Geez girls, you're not giving me much hope! Like Simone, I thought it was going to get better! I thought 11 months of sleep deprivation was bad, I'm not sure I can cope with SIX YEARS! I keep thinking that we'll have another baby once DS (and me!) is sleeping better.........he might be an only child at this rate LOL!