Roller coaster 3 yr old *Sleep Q's*

[Smidge]

I need some help, but please be gentle.  I'm having a rough time with my 36 mo old daughter and we've been dealing with this for 3 weeks now.  Lately she wakes at 5:45am which is too early in this house.  It has always been around 7am for wakeups and that allowed everyone enuf sleep.  Both of my kids go down around 7pm and sleep until 6:45ish every night.  Until now.

This morning she woke up at 6:45, an exception to the rule for sure.  By 9am she was begging to go to nap and I said no, we need to wait until nap (10:30-11).  I made snack at 10 and then we played a game and then they were both tired around 10:45 so I put them down for nap.  It is now 11:20 and she has gotten up twice crying about how tired she is.  I want to pull my hair out mamas :(  This is her "M.O."  She says how tired she is and then takes forever to finally relax and fall asleep or she'll just skip nap all together and the afternoon is awful b/c all she does is whine and complain about how tired she is.

She still has a binky at nap/night time only and I sing songs to her before bed; we're very routine oriented here. I understand that kids go thru needing more or less sleep as they develop, but I can see how tired she is.

Please help

[kittie313]

No advice, just hugs to offer.  My 3yo has been giving us a hard time about bedtime lately too, to where now we just get them all down and after her sisters are all asleep she's allowed to come out and lay on the sofa with her pillow, blanket, and bear to watch dh play his computer game until she falls asleep.  She quit napping about a year ago, so I have NO advice on that area.

Just try to get to bed a little earlier yourself maybe to accomodate her new wakeup time and remember, this too shall pass...........  I find myself chanting that one quite often some weeks.  3 is such a challenging age at times.

[SeekingJoy]

What happens if you go ahead and put her down when she asks at 9? Will she sleep for a bit and then wake up happy? It sounds like she is in a funky cortisol cycle.

[Smidge]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy 

What happens if you go ahead and put her down when she asks at 9? Will she sleep for a bit and then wake up happy? It sounds like she is in a funky cortisol cycle.

She probably wouldn't have fallen asleep at 9am either.  However, she did finally fall asleep about 1.5 hrs after I put her down and then woke up 1 hr later even more tired.  She got better today, so we'll see :)