Need sleep advice for a 2.5 yr old who wants me in the bed with her all night

[bellydance2290]

DD is 2.5 yrs old and has never been a good sleeper.  She has been sleeping in her own room since right before she was 2, before that I slept with her in the guest room because we just all didn't fit into our bed.  Currently, I sleep with her in her room (she has a full size bed with rails).  She takes awhile to fall asleep and I sit and read in bed while she does this.  She will not go to sleep by herself.  I don't really mind staying with her for this - it takes 30-45 mins and I get to read and relax.  The problem is that she has started waking up every 45 mins - 1.5 hours and wants me with her.  She has always woken up but not so frequently.  I now spend the little time I have with my husband, running up and down the stairs to get her back to sleep.  I'm also trying to wake up early in the morning to work online and I can't even do this since she wakes up.  We want to come up with some sort of "plan" to help her sleep by herself with minimal crying.  Any suggestions that worked for you?  I know that the problem is that she expects me to be there every time she stirs - if I am in bed with her she doesn't wake me up at all.  How can I change this??  

[jenni22]

I am in the same boat, but mine will be 4 in less than a month.  I have tried putting her bed in my room so I could just talk to her if she woke up, but that wasn't enough to keep her there, so I tried a body pillow between us in my bed so that she at least could start to get used to not snuggling up to me all nightd then I'd let her come over as soon as it was light out.  I thought it was going good because I wasn't waking up at night, but then my sister came to visit and said that she stirs a few times per night and I say shhh, mama's here and then she goes back to sleep...I was really bummed about that because I thought we were getting somewhere!  I think I just felt discouraged about it all, so I recently took the body pillow away and thought, maybe she's just not ready, but thinking, man, will she still be here when she's 12?!?!  It's just me and her, so she's quite attached!  I would really love to have her in her own bed though, so hopefully some people will have some thoughts! 

Oh, about the waking up a lot before I go to bed thing, dd was also doing that, and my mom said that when she sleeps over there she leaves the lamp on low until she goes into the bed and dd never wakes up there, so I tried it at home and now she sleeps for at least 3 or 4 hours before I go to bed usually, at that time she just has to go potty and goes right back to sleep.  Maybe she's not scared because the light is still on or something...or maybe it was just all the prayers and God is comforting her!