Sleep issue 2 1/2 year old

My DD has always been a great sleeper at night until January. Since then I would say she has slept through the night like only a handful of nights. We tried many things to get her to sleep. A little bit of background information is that my twins (girl/boy, 2 1/2 years old) sleep in the same room, gave up naps completely since November, in toddler beds since then. We just started to put them to bed earlier and that seemed to work great. Until January....

The first couple of nights when it started she was up pretty much every hour. I believe she started to dream and become more aware of them. Since she shared a room with her twin we didn't want her to cry too much to protect his sleep. We tried bribing her, she loves dresses so if she slept through the night she would get to wear a dress. That made things better but still gets up at least 2 times a night. Now it seems she just isn't getting it that if she doesn't wake up mommy/daddy during the night she gets to wear a dress in the morning, it wasn't working anymore, very random. We tried taking her brother out and letting her cry it out, she was too stubborn for that.

Now just the past month, they have their own rooms. My DS does take naps for at least an hour and sleeps pretty well. My DD cries almost every day during "Quiet Time" (an hour in her room by herself). I usually ignore her completely during that time. She isn't sick at all and I believe she just wants the attention PERIOD. She is used to it by now. She is clearly OVERTIRED now and isn't very fun these days (poor girl).

My husband doesn't want to let her "cry it out" at night because he believes that isn't teaching her anything positive. I can see that but I believe she needs to learn coping skills to help her put herself back to sleep. I just don't know what to do to get her to learn that.

I know this is a very COMMON problem with kiddos about her age just want any advice people have. At this point I am willing to try anything. I was told to let her cry a little longer in between going into her room, which we are in the midst of trying (only day 2). My husband wants to focus on explaining to her the night time is for sleeping so whatever problem she comes up with at night he works on getting her to say it is night time, time for sleeping not drinking, playing, book time, etc. whatever excuse she has.

HELP whatever you can, thanks!!

 

I often find myself in a similar situation with one of my girls, also 2 and a half. Cry it out doesn't work with her anymore because she's mobile. She'll get out of bed and throw her body against the door of her room repeatedly if I ignore her. In a moment of sheer desperation last night, I grabbed her favorite baby doll from her bed and threatened to put baby in time-out all night if she didn't go to sleep. Then, I'm ashamed to say, I said, "And if that doesn't work, I'm coming back for Dora." Dora the Explorer is her second favorite doll to sleep with. Probably won't earn me mother of the year award, but I'm well-rested today. She fell asleep instantly. Try taking things away from her, rather than giving her things.

 

We also went through this (and still are some nights) and took away the favorites. If it gets really bad we just put the door knob cover on their room and ignore them. My 2 sleep through each other as well....but the constant I wants are getting out of control around here!

 

I definitely find that at this age taking something away works better than anything else. Also, around 2 mine started having more fears and anxieties and I found it helped to give them something they could control to comfort them when they got scared (glo worm, twilight turtle, etc). I also got a reasonably bright nightlight (15w bulb) and this stopped all the wakeups except for the true nightmares. Also, I find that the nightmare/night terror wakeups are worse if they are overtired, so if she's not napping maybe bedtime needs to be even earlier? Good luck!