My daughter has been sleeping through the night for 2 years. In the past few weeks she has not been wanting to fall asleep unless my husband or myself are in the room holding her hand. We have not changed anything about her routine. She cried for one hour last night, then woke up at 4a and wanted me to come back in. Please help with any suggestions or advice we would appreciate.
Try to put on some soft music for her. I have the same problem with my daughter she is 4.... I have always had soft music for her but I do not stay in there long. I will tell her 1 song and mommy is going out and do not get up out of bed unless it is an emergency.. It sometimes works when she keeps getting up for no reason I take things away and that gets her attention lol..... Good Luck
Is she still napping during the day? My 3 year old started giving us a really hard time about going to bed & we cut out naps & had to get really strict at bedtime, and now we're back to our good sleeper.
When my kids' sleeping habits changed, I would change their nap schedules. I took their trouble with sleeping as a direct result of getting too many naps. My son actually didn't need his nap after he was 2 1/2. He began laying in bed at night for sometimes up to 2 hours before he was able to fall asleep. I cut out his nap and he was totally fine. He slept 12 hours a night, so that nap was just too much.
It really helped my 3 1/2 yr old to listen to Disney songs on the CD player to go to sleep. Maybe you could find some music that is comforting to her?
Did she have a bad dream? Or is something scaring her in her room?
Whenever my daughter can't sleep she turns on her Ocean Wonders Aquarium that she has in her bed. She can't be without it and she is 4!! My son also has a music and lights thing hanging in his crib. He turns his on too if he can't sleep. He is 20 months. It seems to help. When I was little it was one of those jewelery boxes with the ballerina that you wind up and play. I remember when it broke it was really hard for me to get used to not having it to fall asleep to and I used to get scared. I was scared of the dark and I still am!! HA.
What I am getting at is is maybe she just needs something soothing. Like someone mentioned music or anything that is soothing. I love those crib toys that light up and play music. I don't care how old they are if it helps and they like it they can use it!
We went through this with our daughter right before she turned three. She'd do anything she could think of to keep us in the room. In our case, I think she was scared of the shadows and noises in her room that she just didn't notice before. We stuck to our bed routine (3 stories, 3 songs) and then left. When she'd call for us, one would go in, talk with her for a minute to reassure her and then leave. The second time she called we'd do the same, but tell her that we wouldn't be coming back in because we needed our sleep too. We also started giving her a book that she could look at on her own in bed -- inevitably she'd fall asleep with her book. It was just a phase and lasted only a month or so. Now we're back to normal and no tears at bedtime. Good luck with your little one!
Get her some sort of buddy (stuffed animal, dolly, something) that can "keep her company" and "protect her".
Also, try getting a night light for her room. We have a humidifier that has a night-light built into it that shines up through the tank. That way she can see in the room.
Our daughter also has 2 books that are "night light" books ("The Moon in my Room" and "My Angel and Me") that she puts on her night-stand and can push the button to turn on the nightlight when/if she wants too.
Good luck!
