SD3 still not sleeping through night
I have a 3 year old stepdaughter who still does not sleep through the night. She doesn't just wake up once, but several times throughout the night, the most I have counted has been 4 (& this is all at age 3). She doesn't just go back to sleep either, she SCREAMS bloody murder & won't tell us what she wants. We have considered night terrors, but I think she is just a spoiled brat. My DH has joint custody so he has her every other week for the full week. When she is at BM's, she sleeps in bed with BM. Grandmom lives at BMs too so she is generally just a spoiled rotten child with no rules, manners or discipline whatsoever. The sleep issues are taking a toll on my relationship and my sanity. I can't function at work when I am being woken up in the middle of the night several times by a screaming 3 year old (it would be different if it were a baby just wanting to be fed, but she is literally throwing fits at 3am). When DH picks her up, she literally throws herself onto our bed, he puts her back in her bed & she starts the screaming again. HELP!!
My DD daughter did the same
My DD daughter did the same thing at 3 and it was night terrors - what I learned is if you take them to the bathroom and have them pee it usually wakes them up. She would scream and if DH tried to help her she would attack him - at first I would get pissed but then I realized that she was not awake when these happened. Also her peds doctor told me to put her in bed by 7:15 because she was not getting to bed early enough - we did that and the night terror stopped. If it is night terrors she can not help herself - just try the bathroom and then walking around with her until she wakes up. My Dh had them when he was little and that is how we figured out what was happening.
The story of my life I dealt
The story of my life I dealt with this with sd staring at age 2 1/2 her birth mom slept with her just b/c it was easier then trying to get her in her on bed. We had her every weekend and some wed. nights and when she came to our house she never wanted to go to sleep woould keep us up half the night and then started the screaming about everyhour. Fast forward down the road to age 3 1/2 we have had full custody for almost a year. We just keep doing the same thing when she wakes us up dh walks with her back into her bedroom and she is back asleep in ten and an hour later it all starts again. We just kept doing the same routine everynight and just getting it to where she was laying down by eight. a couple months after her 4th birthday it just stopped. the only thing i can think is she got older and instead of dh just doing the same routine and just following her back into her room he started disciplining her if she woke up more than once he would yell at her to get back in bed and it stopped. The only time she started doing it again is when we moved into our house now. It only lasted a week but once we got her tv there and got her dvd player set on repeat it never happened again. I think it has something to do with if it gets to quiet she was not raised to sleep with no sound so she freaks out? Not sure? just wait it out, discipline, routine, try a night light or a tv. I am not a firm believer in tv at night and when i have my own it wont be allowed but if its what it takes for you to be able to sleep at night it was worth it in my case
If you don't think she is
If you don't think she is having night terrors or anything like that maybe have her pick out a cd that is good for bedtime and play it when she goes to sleep. If she wakes back up you can tell her she needs to turn her bedtime music back on and go back to sleep?
My SD now, almost 5! does the
My SD now, almost 5! does the exact same thing and she isn't having night terrors, the only time she displays any type of duress whatsoever is if DH makes her go to sleep, or if I get up beacuse she knows I wont fall for the, "I don't know why I out of bed" routine, I set clear standards with SD that I do not tolarate being lied to, i dont tolerate manipulation and i dont tolerate disrespect. She is usually up a minimum of three times per night, i think in the last year, she has slpet the whole night twice. If she wakes up in the night I usually wake up before DH as I am more responsive to the slightest noise, I will go in to put her back to bed, she tells me that nothing is wrong at all she just wants to sleep with daddy, when I explain to her that we all sleep in our owns rooms, she will start screaming bloody murder and balling until
DH comes in, upon which she will promptly tell him that shes scared and he will proceed to climb into bed with her, without recifying the issue and completely ignoring when i inform him of what she has told me and that she is manipulating him, and he will sleep with her until she stops. Then he complains that she doesn't sleep! HA! She doesn't sleep because she doesn't have to. On days when DH has to go to work really early(around three am) and she will wake up and try to sneek into my room, all I have to say is go back to bed and she's in her room asleep within 5 minutes. He blames the fact that she does this on her being allowed to sleep with BM when she is there, but he's not understanding that by giving her what she wants, he is reinforcing he negative behavior. I mean this is all extremely destructive to the child, especailly since she has serious behavioral problems any way, her constant fatigue is adding to her behavior issues. and I am really worrying that she will begin to have serious developmental issues if this doesn't stop. Well, DH and BM agreed before BM's week with her that she should start sleep by herself, thus far as we can tell BM has followed through and we get her back tonight, we shall see if DH can hoof it too!