2 Year old NOT sleeping?

Question

ok I dont know were to start. I have a 2 year old lil girl and she won't sleep threw the night. I have cut her naps to an hour a day and have her go down early afternoon. She falls asleep fine in her crib but will NOT stay asleep the whole night I have no idea what to do I have tried the "let her cry it out" and that just makes her throw up cuz she is screaming so hard. I have tried leaveing a cup of water in her crib that didnt work I have no Idea whatelse to do. It is getting so bad that my husband and I have had to take days off of work just cuz we are that tired. She is up atleast 4 times a night on a good night on a bad night it is every hour. She slept better when she was a new born PLEASE HELP. I have talked to the doctor but they say its cuz of her cup but she dosent always want her cup so I dont think it is that. And if I give her NO nap...BAD NEWS!!
She is fresh and wont fall asleep without laying with her she gets over tired.
Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

put some stuffed animals in the bed with her

Answer 2

I have a 2 year insomniac. He slept fine through the night since he was 3 months old. Right after he turned 2, he's up as soon as every else is asleep. Don't cut out the nap, I think at 2 a they still need naps in order to function, without one my 2 year olds are cranky and still won't sleep.

There are a few things that have help:
1) I pushed his bed time back an hour
2) An hour or so before bedtime I give him a chance to get rid of some of that energy. When it's nice out I'll take him outside and chase him around and let him run. But since in winter now, we wrestle in the living room, I turn on an aerobics tape and let him copy it. Just anything to get him moving.
3) The last 30 min or so before bedtime I give him a chance to wind down. I'll read with him or something else calming. By the end of the book, he's already yawning.

Since I've been doing these things, he stays asleep most nights, but he still gets up a couple nights a week. I think it's just the age and hopefully he'll grow out of it, soon. Good luck, hope I've been helpful

Answer 3

Man, I feel for you, really I do! I have a 2, 3 and 7 year old, and my 2yr old girl wakes up a lot at night. Not as much as yours, but she does wake up at least once or twice every single night. It does get very hard to do everything you need to do as a mother and a worker when you don't get a full night's sleep. I'm really not sure why she would not want to sleep. You say if you don't give her a nap during the day it's bad news. Have you tried giving her her nap early in the day? Maybe keep her up all afternoon and let her stay up a little later than usual before you put her down. What time do you usually try to put her down by? Maybe it's too early for her. How late does she sleep in the mornings? Children that age need about 12-14 hours of sleep per every 24 hours. Have you tried putting a little lullaby cd in her room with her? We do that with our 2 yr old, it plays 14 lullaby songs, some with voice and some without. That calms her down a lot. Maybe you could also try not only letting her stay up later in the evening, but give her a soothing bath before bed time. If you can use that Johnson & Johnson with Lavender and Camomille that is soothing herbs that is supposed to help calm them down and get ready for bed time. You could sing to her or rub her back or hair, read her a short book, anything to get her calm and ready for bed. You could try taking her to the park early evening and let her run out her energy, then come home, eat, give her a bath and try putting her to bed then.

I really feel for ya, and I hope something helps. Good luck!

Answer 4

Well, I guess at this point it can't get much worse, so no matter what you do, try it for at least 4 or 5 days before you decide to give up on it. First and foremost, make sure you have a routine. Our routine for my 3 year old is:
7pm snack and milk, about 25 min of TV, healthy (read no sugar) snack and a cup of milk.
730pm go upstairs, go pee, brush teeth, wash hands, change into PJs, read 2 books, rock in rocking chair for a few minutes, go pee again (she's potty trained, so I want her to pee as much as possible before going to bed), turn on night light, turn on humidifier, get into bed, big kiss, cover her with a blanket, say "night night, sleep tight, I'll see you in the morning light, I love you", kiss, turn off light, leave the room.
8pm she's in bed by herself.
We've been doing this almost the same for about 1 1/2 years with a few little changes here and there. It's successful for us, and she is usually asleep after about 1/2 hour. She sleeps until about 745/8am and still takes a nap of anywhere from 1 to 3 hours.
So, with that being said, my other comment is this, your 2 year old might be over tired. DO NOT go without a nap, she still needs it desperately. You say it's bad news if you don't give her a nap, so that means she still needs it. Okay, I know this sounds strange, and I don't know what time your little girl is in bed by herself, but you might want to try putting her down earlier. If she always gets crabby at 7, that might be because she wants to be asleep! I know it sounds odd, but it has totally worked for my 11 month old. Just try it, you might be surprised. As for the cup, she doesn't need it. If you keep giving it to her, she'll keep asking for it. Does she have a doll/teddy? This has been the best thing for my girls. I don't know what else to say, except that I hope things improve. Goodluck!

Answer 5

My first son was like that, too. He gave up daytime naps by the time he was 18 months old, but he didn't sleep through the night until he was two-and-a-half. Even then, he didn't always. I would sit and hold his hand, or cuddle him to help him sleep. It was difficult at the time, I got SOOO tired, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

As his language got clearer, I learned that he had terrible nightmares that were waking him up. They seemed to be caused by watching animated TV - not nasty stuff, anything that was animated would spark his imagination and he would start seeing overwhelming bright colours in his sleep.

So we just switched off the TV, except for the occasional show with real people, and he only watched videos with real people or puppets (eg Thomas the tank engine was fine) - and gradually he stopped having nightmares.

Then he said he wanted his baby brother to sleep in the room with him, because if he did wake up at night he wanted to hear someone breathing. So we moved them in together, and suddenly he started sleeping far better.

I don't know if any of that helps, but might be worth trying.

Answer 6

A nice bedtime routine is great for this sort of thing but don't expect it to work the first nite....
A nice warm bath, cup of warm milk, a bedtime story or two, an extra cuddle and a promise to see her in the morning.
Also, if her room is big enough give some thought to putting up a twin bed on nights she wakes up you can go in and cuddle with her in the bed and go back to sleep yourself in there with her.....part of our bedtime routine is after story to say Good nite let the bed bugs bite, and she says mommy you sayed it wrong possed ta say Don't let the bed bugs bite. I repeat, give extra hugs and say see you in the morning, if you wake up and daddy went to work already you can get into my bed if you want to........about a month of her coming in to early and being put back to her bed and another month of her coming in when my hubby left for work at 4 and now she stays in her bed all night more often then not..

Most important though remember she will only be this age for a very small window, then she will always be bigger----enjoy it even if it means a few nights in the twin with her instead of the big bed with hubby....

Answer 7

Join the club! My daughter turned 2 this past July and same deal... We have tried everything and nothing. I even tried putting her to sleep in our bed to no avail! I've asked everyone and no one has seemed to be able to help this far. I work, as does my husband, so I feel your frustration.
If you ever find anything out please share and I will also.
The one thing that I was told from my doctor was that she was hungry, well we feed her at dinner time and then give her a snack before bed and didn't work...
Help us both!

Answer 8

Oh boy, that's a tough situation. My son never wakes up, so i don't really have any good advice for you, but when he was younger, and h would wake up, we'd just go in, pick him, tell him we love him and that it's time to go back to bed, and lay him right back down. In and out of the room in a couple of minutes. He might wine a little, but never for very long. Again, that probably doesn't help, but hang in there.

Cheers

Answer 9

Your child is afraid of something. Be that being alone, the dark, or something else no has thought of, but the child is afraid, of something. You might want to keep her with you, or her crib next to your bed for a period of time until what ever the fear is, is grown out of. She isn't going to know what it is that bothers her, she is to young to rationalize that. What is apparent to you, is not apparent to her. So, you need to try to see things from her point of view, and go that extra mile for her.

Answer 10

Ya im pretty sure this is normal.
Give her a bath before bed sometimes that helps.
Happy Holidays!