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

[Visitor9]

She seems to be getting cluer and cluer to manipulate me to letting her stay with me or sleep with me. Tonight she got my hand so I would feel her tears and then did the sob. We are eyeballing each other at them moment. DH hates it, I miss having a clean house. But it is making me start to wonder am I the only one that has had about 1200 days and still cant manage to get her to sleep.
Please someone make me feel like a normal mother

[~Trish~]

Aww Bec . I don't have any words of advice, but I wanted to send you a hug and let you know that you are doing a wonderful job with your DD. They really know how to push our buttons don't they! You are a normal mother and I'm sure there are lots of other mums going through the exact same thing with their 3 year olds. My 3 year old spends an hour or more every night chanting and singing before finally going to sleep. I just don't get him! DH is just heading in their now for the millionth time to tell him to be quiet lol!

[Trish]

Bec, huge hugs sweety.

I just want to let you know that you are surely not alone. We still have issues with Tehya and her sleep. She still wakes most everynight, and we can only get her into bed after she has fallen to sleep in the loungeroom, generally with DP as I have the baby.

Her daytime nap, when she has it, I have to cuddle her to stop her from getting up and eventually she gives is and falls to sleep.

[Lulu]

Oh lordy - he sleeps now, and at 3.5 we are down to only a one ring circus to get him off to sleep. He still doesn't sleep very soundly.

I can't stand taking photos of myself 'cos my eyes are soooooo dark.

Hang in there....

[Visitor9]

She is still awake, tickling my feet!!
Hopefully she will be asleep soon!!
Once she is asleep it is bliss just that falling asleep!

Thanks for making me feel better, I only hear the stories about 3yr olds that fall asleep at 7pm and they dont hear from them till the morning.

DH is useless as usual

[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!

[mickyndan]

Janie,

Don't let 1 bad sleeper stop you from having another. I have a 6 month old now and a 2.5yr old (see my post above). My 6 month old is an ANGEL.. Sleeps 13 hours, goes down without a problem etc. it just proves that I had NO clue with #1 but knew it all with #2.... LOL

[Willow]

I'm having problems with my 3 year old DD too. She used to be an angel but the last few months has taken to waking up at night. Going to sleep was an issue for a little while but now that's pretty under control, it's just the night waking that's killing me slowly....I keep praying that she'll go back to being an angel but it's been a month now of waking most nights (not every night thank god) and I'm losing hope!

Our GP says it's separation anxiety so I feel bad for her but man I wish she'd get over it!!

It's a rude shock when they've always slept well....

[Visitor9]

Eliza too was a great sleeper too, so much I had to wake her fer feeds many years ago. She hit the talking stage and now is now knows the buttons that hurt mummy.Such as when I am working all day she has the but I havent seen you ALLLLL day, being a mummy is such hard work. No wonder no2 is taking so long, the fear of having 2 up makes me wonder if I will be doing camp outs for many years to come. But what is funny tonight she went down no problems...we may have a 3am wake up still but I miss her company LOL
Bec

[diva det]

my 5 year old has finally just fallen asleep now!
i hear you girlfriends. My DD is a night owl and her twin brother is a morning person. Sometimes i had 5 hours in between one going to sleep and one waking- and they are at school!!!
The first time i got a full nite sleep was when they were 3 years old! and that was only once a week on a average
tried everything as well
just remember that they won't have sleeping issued when they are 21 years old!!
its is a phase and they will get through it- we just have to keep sane whilst they are going through it!!!
better go and get some sleep now as DS will be up in 6 hours!