hello moms. my daughter will be 4 in march and she is constantly coming in my room in the middle of the night. i always remind her before bed that she is not allowed in mommys room until the sun is out. this isnt working she is waking up around 2-3 and coming in my room. part of me says who cares since she goes back to sleep once she is in my bed. but the other part of me says she needs to stay in her bed. i can not let her cry in the middle of the night since my mil gets up for work at 5a and needs her sleep which i totally understand. my mil said maybe she is waking up from peeing (she doesnt stay dry at night yet so is still in a pull up). what are your suggestions any and all will help :) tia!
Thanks for all the helpfull advice :) we do stop all liguids after dinner. i cant let her cry in the middle of the night since my mil will get mad and throw the my house my rules. i am really eager for the night light idea. she has a lady bug night light that shows stars on the wall ( that helped not to be scared in her room). i will have to look into that good night light :)
Have you tried the stoplight alarm clock. It works great on my son. When it is red he has to stay in bed or his room and when it is green he can get up. When he wakes up in the middle of the night he looks at his clock and the red reminds him to go back to bed.
http://www.amazon.com/Stoplight-Sleep-Enhancing-Clock-Paj...
We went through this with our daughter right after she turned 3 and it was a complete nightmare. She kept coming out of her room just to see what we were up to while we were still awake & then got so used to being able to come out she'd do it each time she woke up in the middle of the night too. Bottom line, we tried a sticker chart, the SuperNanny method of returning her to bed, a gate at her door, letting her sleep with us, sleeping with her - nothing was getting us a good nights sleep. Finally I tried the Good Nite Lite http://www.goodnitelite.com/ -- it has worked like a charm! I got her excited about it before it came -- telling her a special new nightlite was coming for her...We remind her each night to stay in bed until the sun comes on (except for trips to the potty) & she has MAJORLY improved. It is a night light that shines as a moon during the night (or naptime) and switches to a sun at the parent determined time. Love it!
One other thing we've done is let her read books in her room with a kiddo flashlight after we say goodnight. She is allowed 2-3 books and then she has to turn off her flashlight. Most nights she'll turn it off on her own - sometimes she falls asleep with the flashlight on & we creep in & turn it off when we go to sleep.
I let the kids stay with us. Everyone gets to sleep, they sleep and are better behaved the next day, I don't think it's a big deal if the kids want to cuddle and sleep with us. If you want to battle about it them get a tall gate and put it up in her doorway that way if she gets up she can't get out of her room and may go back to sleep on her own. We just always put a gate up in the hallway so the kids couldn't wander the house and they could come and go in our room as needed.
I would check and see if she is hungry. Give her a big bowl of cereal or healthy snack before bed. nothing to drink after say 6 will help with the wetting at night. the coming into your room is a habit she has and will have to be broken. put a gate up across her room if she refuses to stay in her room. and like you I would care. I love kids but not in my bed lol.
We started letting our daughter in bed with us when she got up in the middle of the night 2 years ago at about 3 years old and we eventually realized that she was getting up just to sleep with us. We had to take the hard line and bring her back to her room every time no matter if she cried or not. It took about a week of getting up 2-3 times a night to put her back to bed but it was eventually worth it becaus she now usually will not wake up anymore and stays in her own bed. We would just say, "Back to bed. We sleep in our own beds at night." I would just tell your MIL your plan and that she'll have to maybe have a week of crying. About the wetting, she's now almost 5 and still wears a pull-up at night. She just doesn't wake up. I think they don't expect full night potty training until 5-7 so your DD isn't out of the ordinary. Good luck!
I haven't had to try this yet -- but I thought this was a great idea. The "tape trick" on Prudent Baby. http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/12/tape-trick.html
My son is still in his crib (miraculously) but we'll have to move him to his big bed soon and I know we'll face the same issues, which is why I was already looking for solutions!
Go back in time and don't let her in your bed the first time ;) just kidding.
i agree, try the super nanny thing, where you put her back in bed. after the first time, don't talk to her, just do it. if she goes to bed ok at her bedtime, she should be fine. you just have to make the decision to not let her back in. she may cry, but it won't be more than a few nights if you're consistent. she might surprise you, she may not even be bothered by it. kids do what we allow them to, so she may just think it's ok, even though you tell her not to come in, you still let her in the bed, so she's probably just trying anyway.
if you think she's having to pee, then stop all liquids after dinner. that might help.
My 2 cents...
It sounds like you've let her sleep in bed with you before. So, she thinks that is an option regardless of what you tell her. If you don't want her coming in bed with you, then you need to be consistent every time and tell her no, put her back in bed.
My daughter never did this, but we also never allowed her to sleep in our bed. However, from friends who did fight this battle, all I can advise is to stop it now--Because it's even harder to break the habit when the child is 5 or 6.
