NEED HELP!!! 27 months old stopped sleeping!

[anechka]

Our daughter is 27 months old.  For the last 1.5 months, she has trouble sleeping at night.  She wakes up almost every night and cannot fall back to sleep.  She goes to bed around 9:00PM, falls asleep around 10:00Pm and wakes up at 2:00AM almost every night for the past month and half.  And from 2:00AM until morning she is up – playing or crying or both. There may be an exception when one night a week she would sleep through the night, but it's a rarity.  For the most part, she is active at night.   She is a bit cranky during the day, and looks tired during the day with puffy eyes and dark circles underneath her eyes. She takes one hour nap almost every day and we don't notice any major changes in her behavior, but at night she just seems overly alert and active.  

We are extremely concerned, not to mention we are sleep deprived and juts need to do something.  We took her to our pediatrician, she looked at her and said there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her and this simply could be the case of "terrible two".  I just have hard time buying into this.  Something prevents her from sleeping.  I would think a little toddler who lacks sleep so intensely would feel tired at some point.

I am concerned that there may be some psychological or neurological problems with our daughter. We need suggestions. Should I take her to neurologist? to physotherapist? Perhaps, sleep study??? Although my doctor says that she is not a good candidate for sleep study: too young and she would not be able to fall asleep with all those wires.

Thanks

Anna

[wishin'&hopin']

My little is only 8 months...but it sounds like your 27 month old has an awfully late bedtime.  From the reading I've done on our little guys sleep most of what I've read agrees that if the little is overtired than they don't sleep as well.  Have you tried an earlier bedtime?

[anechka]

She used to go to bed around 8:00PM but one month and a half ago she refused going to bed at this time. We pushed her bedtime to 9:00PM and it takes us at least one hour to make her to fall asleep. But then she is up at 2:00AM every night which drives us all crazy. She started sleeping through night when she was 19 months old and we were so excited. And now at 27 months we regressed; in fact it is even worse then before. When she was younger she would wake up multiple times during the night but then she would go right back to sleep. Now, she does not go back to sleep. She is up and wants to play all night.

[babydanielsmom]

Here's a couple of things that jump out at me...

When she wakes up at night do you make it boring? Meaning no playing with toys, low lighting, staying in bed (that sort of thing). Could it be she just needs to relearn how to stay asleep? And no I do not mean CIO. I'm thinking of you or your Dh there reminding her it's sleep time and you don't get up to play until morning...rub her back ...sing a song softly, you get the idea.

Could she be hungry? How long before bed time does she get a snack? What type of food is it?

My Ds wakes up frequently at night if he is getting or has an ear infection, cutting teeth, or some such thing as that. Could she be not feeling well?

 We just had to decide that in our house our two (now three) year old does not get to decide when he is ready to go to sleep because frankly I don't think he ever would. Sleep is too important to growing bodies. We help our Lo's learning their ABC's and learn to use the potty. I am convinced that some kiddos need our help learning how to get to sleep (gently). That being said I am really thankful that Ds2 goes to sleep just about every night within 5 minutes.

[ssh]

Right at 27 months my DD started not being able to go to sleep at night until really late. We noticed that she fell asleep about 8 hours after being awake. So with naps that was sleeping 10 hours, being up 8 hours then sleeping 2 and needing to be up another 8 before she could sleep. So we dropped her nap. For a few weeks she was grumpy right around 5 or 6 every night, but she went to sleep in minutes and slept for 12 hours, with a few night nursing sessions. If you are still doing naps maybe your LO is ready to drop them and that's why she can't seem to sleep at night. I also agree that feeling bad can prevent sleep. Is she getting teeth? also she could be hungry or thirsty. My DD was still nursing a few times a night at that age.

We've always had a late bedtime, after 9 or so. Our DDs treats going to bed before 9 as a nap. Meaning she sleeps 2 hours and then she's up and wants to play. It's not what time your DD goes to sleep it's how much total sleep and what kind of sleep pattern she has.

[anechka]

Originally Posted by babydanielsmom 

Here's a couple of things that jump out at me...

When she wakes up at night do you make it boring? Meaning no playing with toys, low lighting, staying in bed (that sort of thing). Could it be she just needs to relearn how to stay asleep? And no I do not mean CIO. I'm thinking of you or your Dh there reminding her it's sleep time and you don't get up to play until morning...rub her back ...sing a song softly, you get the idea.

Could she be hungry? How long before bed time does she get a snack? What type of food is it?

My Ds wakes up frequently at night if he is getting or has an ear infection, cutting teeth, or some such thing as that. Could she be not feeling well?

 We just had to decide that in our house our two (now three) year old does not get to decide when he is ready to go to sleep because frankly I don't think he ever would. Sleep is too important to growing bodies. We help our Lo's learning their ABC's and learn to use the potty. I am convinced that some kiddos need our help learning how to get to sleep (gently). That being said I am really thankful that Ds2 goes to sleep just about every night within 5 minutes.

We took her to a doctor and she said that dd is healthy. She may be cutting her second molars, though. When she wakes up, I quetly put her back to bed. I do not talk to her and I keep lights off. Now, when she wakes up we would seat beside her bed quitely for an hour or so. This seem to help her to get back to sleep faster. If we put her to bed and walk out of her room; she will be running back to us. By staying in her room we prevent her from running back and forth across hallway all night long.  I tried to feed her more during ther day but this makes no difference. Ultimately, she stopped sleeping well and we can't figure out why. And with me going back to work in three weeks, I don't know how I will survive this.