My 28 month old is going through a possible sleep regression. Any suggestions?
So my daughter has been sleeping in her room by herself since she was 6 months old. She had always been a really good sleeper. She is on a queen size floor bed and has all her blankets and teddys with her. She normally goes to bed at 8pm no problem and sleeps all night till 7 am. There are obviously some nights that’s aren’t perfect but even those she is pretty good.
The last few nights out of no where she is screaming bloody murder when it comes to bed time and refuses to go on to her bed or wants me to cuddle with her. She has never done that before. When I ask her what’s wrong she just cries and says she doesn’t want to sleep or be in her room.
She is clearly tired and needs sleep but is just fighting it. Tonight I had to rocker her like a baby again.
Dose anyone have any suggestions on what this could be or what to do. I work early mornings and don’t want to co sleep if I don’t have too. I just want to understand what changed or why she is so upset.
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Idk but you’re not alone. I’m seeing this at 4:14 am and my son has been awake since 2:30 like it’s time to hang out. He’s 26 months I think and was diagnosed with ASD level 3 right after his birthday. Recently he’s started waking up in the middle of the night for 2 hours or so, even with melatonin.
We're also going through this with our 26 month old. Used to be a fantastic sleeper and still is for the most part, but now nearly every night at bedtime is a struggle. From everything I've read sleep regression is normal around this age due to either separation anxiety or their imagination beginning to develop further. So suddenly things that were normal before are scary now for whatever reason. Maybe try a fun nightlight, switching up the nighttime routine a little (I started pretending to 'chase' her around the house briefly to get out the last minute energy and to make the journey to the bedroom a game rather than a fight), switch up her bedding with something fun that she picks out so her bed is exciting again? I also read somewhere that this particular stage of sleep regression is where they're really learning that they can depend on you, so checking in often and providing them with the security they need to feel comfortable sleeping regularly again will pay off in the long run.
I also saw one mom with a slightly older child that didn't want to fall asleep on their own and kept waking up throughout the night say that she started giving her kiddo a stuffed animal to sleep with, then set another one nearby to "watch over" her, then explained that every time she comes to check in on her she'll leave another stuffed animal. That way when the kiddo would inevitably wake up in the middle of the night there'd be a pile of stuffed animals there now, so they'd see "oh, ok, Mom's been checking on me--I'm safe."
Not sure how well it'd work for the initial bedtime struggle, but I thought it was a cute idea.
Thank you ladies. These are great ideas
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