My 3 Year Old Will Not Sleep All Night Anymore!

I'm having the exact same issue with my 3 yr old son. He wakes up, sometimes he says he's had a nightmare, other times he says he just wants to "snuggle" with us! My husband and I are just about at the breaking point with losing sleep. We were so used to him sleeping well, and in his OWN bed! I'm interested to see the responses.... please help!

I once saw a suggestion that said to tell the child that if they wanted to come in to your room at night, they had to bring a blanket and pillow and sleep on the floor beside the bed. This was meant to discourage the behavior because it would be so uncomfortable. We tried it with my son who is 4 and he actually seemed to like sleeping that way, although he brought a nap mat with him. But it did keep him out of our bed! Hope this helps!

She maybe acting out her unsureness of what the new baby will mean to her place in your life. You may just need to spend a little extra time with her to re sure her , she will always have her own place in your heart. Also you may try a star chart with her the night she stills in her bed she gets a star and after so many stars she gets a reward you have both agree on.

Any time ours would do this, we would take them back to their rooms and sleep with them in their beds instead. This kept them from getting too used to being in our beds. If we woke again later that night, we'd just go back to our bed then. Uncomfortable, yes, especially with you being pregnant. I've been there too. But it was worth it, they rarely wake and want in our bed (with the exception of "bad dreams").

Hey J., my 4 year old grandson does the same thing. My son and daughter in law have put a sleeping bag on the other side of their room. When he comes in he goes to the sleeping bag instead of getting in their bed. i'm not sure that's the best solution but it seems to work for them. That's his "special sleeping place" in their room. Sometimes he wants to nap there as well and they allow him to. Good Luck...R.

There is some great advice here from other moms--I think you should definitely try explaining to her that she can sleep in the ROOM with you if she needs to, but she needs to have a sleeping bag on the floor or whatever because you really need to get good sleep so you won't be a cranky mommy.

Then again...if she's not really bothering your sleep...you can also take some time with this, go slow, etc...because it sounds like you have a lot of change and upheaval going on AND she's at a certain developmental age where she might just be needing more Mommy...so I also really like the comment about not making punishments, etc, just do what you need to do so everyone sleeps well. You might check out The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers, by Elizabeth Pantley. It has a ton of simple things to try to help get everyone to sleep in the place you want them to sleep with minimal trauma.

And then of course there's the Mommy Mantra to keep in mind: This, too, shall pass! =) Good luck!

Three things come to mind that could be happening: 1) If she is not potty trained at night, then she may be peeing and it wakes her up; 2) She may be getting cold (we solved this with one of our kids by getting him an electric blanket. I would turn it on low when I went to bed and he stayed snuggled in all night.); and 3) She is at the age where she just needs some extra reassurance that you are right there. Do some extra cuddling in the day and see if that helps.

My 2 1/2 year old started doing this after the baby was born! My husband wouldn't even realize he was climbing in next to him, and the next morning we've all had a horrible nights sleep because we're crowded and my son is a crazy sleeper. We started by making him a bed in the floor. We told him he couldn't sleep in our bed, but he could sleep on the floor and he seemed good with that. The baby is in our room in a bassinet and I didn't want him thinking he wasn't allowed in but that baby was. After a few nights coming in our room and sleeping in the floor, we started taking him back to his room. He actually ended up sleeping on the floor in his room a few nights because he liked it so much. But that transitioned him back to his room. Then I put away the pallet and if he got up we took him back to his bed. He cried the first night, but stayed in bed and went to sleep! Its only been a little over a week, but he's not getting up every single night already. And when he does get up I take him back to his bed and he just lies down and goes back to sleep, no problem! Good luck!!!!

My son is about the same age & recently went through something similar, though I'm not pregnant. :) What we did is bring back the baby gate. We didn't have a problem with him climbing over it but if that is an issue, you can use 2, one on top of the other. With the gate up he can come to the gate & call for us if he needs something, but no more climbing in bed with us. His room is very close to ours so we can hear him, but you could use a baby monitor if necessary. We just go to him & tuck him back in bed & tell him to go back to sleep. The only time we let him in our bed anymore is when it's less than an hour till time to get up. Now he's gotten to where he doesn't even come to the gate & just calls out from his bed, usually when his blankets come off, for me to tuck him. Then he goes right back to sleep. We keep a "safe" space heater in his room with a thermostat set to come on if it gets chilly in there.

When I was about 18 months and maybe younger I spent lots of time with my great aunt and uncle. I might have slept with them at first. Around 2 1/2 yrs they moved me to another bed and in another room. I would go to sleep and then wake up in the early mornings get up and look for them. For some reason I needed to be near them. My aunt solve the problem by putting me in the bed on the couch in theur room. within months I was in my own room. Sleeping bag on floor if floor is warm Allowed to sleep in your room but not your bed is good. M.

Kay's advice is really good, though you might want to look into the research done on electric blankets. The soft plastics encasing the wiring and the ... flame retardents, I believe - have been linked to serious health effects like cancer. I steer clear. A snug hat works wonders, since the head is of course where a lot of the body's heat escapes.

Also, night visits often signal a high-need time, according to Dr. Sears. Your daughter is probably noticing that something is up with Mommy. Even if you're not sick or feeling especially different yet, our kids are master readers of us. So, she might be feeling some extra need for closeness now. While you spend extra day time cuddling, and wait for the positive effects at night, you might consider bringing a sleeping bag or mattress or something to the foot of the bed or otherwise near the bed so she can sneak in but be aware of boundaries.

You can make sleeping in bed with you a reward for sleeping in her room or on this special "bed" in the room wiht you. Dr. Sears suggests that after X nights in an agreed bed, she can sleep all night with you, then after a short time graduate back to her bed, and at that time you can introduce a special new bear or soemthing to celebrate (and of course help her settle back in).

L.

My daughter went through this exact phase around age 3 and I was actually pregnant too. On the bright side, it only lasted a couple of months. Try to stay consistent with putting her back but don't necessarily push it or punish her for it. If anything, she's just picking up on your extra maternal hormones and wanting to be close to you. Maybe just take the time to snuggle with her and eventually she'll start sleeping heavily enough again to stay in her own bed. At least you have several months before the new baby comes. It'll be ok mama ;-) Hang in there. Oh, and congrats on your new lil one!!!

A.