Help! Horrible sleeping 2 year old!

[jcogar1]

My 2.5 year old dd has become a horrible sleeper. Tonight, she's been up about 10-15 times. Background: she slept through the night @10ish months and was a wonderful sleeper. Slept 7-7 most nights without fighting to go down or any wake ups. We potty trained in January and got up with her a couple times a night to pee. She became day & night trained in about 1 week.

Since potty training, it's been all downhill. She refuses to go to sleep. We put her to bed @7 and she's usually awake until 9 or 10. We've tried moving her bedtime later, and she will still take 2-3 hours to go to sleep. Then comes the night wakings. She will yell that have wants us, we go in & tell her it's bed time and she will fall right back asleep usually. This happens, like I said, 10-15 times a night.

We also recently switched her to a toddler bed out of desperation for a better sleeping child. I know we could have done it a long time ago, but now I wish we didn't.

Mommy is exhausted, dd is exhausted & has become a very needy child whom otherwise has been a very well behaved kid. I also have our 7 month old in the room right next to her so I hate that if I don't jump up & she gets to screaming, now both kids are awake.

I'm desperate here. Any advice welcomed.

[chandni3]

Would a toddler alarm clock like this one http://www.mytotclock.com/home.php?o...b3qna6vq1d86i1 that tells her when it's ok to wake up help?

[Tweedledum]

Originally Posted by chandni3 Would a toddler alarm clock like this one http://www.mytotclock.com/home.php?o...b3qna6vq1d86i1 that tells her when it's ok to wake up help?

I was just going to suggest this. My DD was the same way as a 2.5 year old. The tot clock was the best thing we found to solve the problem. Now that she's almost 5 years old, she no longer uses it, and we've put it away in case her little brother needs it in the future.

[amomma]

We have this one and love it! http://www.goodnitelite.com/index.php It took about 8 days but then she caught on. It was before she had even turned two. We were also desperate for sleep! She would get up in the middle of the night and just be up for 3-4 hours. It was awful! I hope things get better fast!

[jcogar1]

Thanks for the alarm clock idea. Anyone else?!

[EmilytheStrange]

I quadruple the tot clock idea

But also, a sleep regression around 24months is very normal. They get increased anxiety, increased awareness that things happen while they're asleep, etc.

And I think a tot clock helps with all that because it gives them the security of a very well defined plan.