My 3YO was a great sleeper from 5 months until around 2.5Y. She started waking every now and again from then. In the last few months, she comes into our room nearly every night, sometimes multiple times a night. The reasons vary - to tell me she loves me, she doesn’t want to be alone, she needs to use the toilet (but does the smallest wee) or what I assume are dreams. She doesn’t come in crying, but tries to crawl straight into our bed. Sometimes she comes in once and will go back to sleep for the night, sometimes multiple times before I get cranky. I always return her to her own bed. She also comes into our bed as soon as she wakes in the morning which has gotten earlier and earlier. Anytime from 5AM onwards. I’m a zombie at that point and as long as she lays quietly, we let her stay in our bed once it’s morning. I know she’s desperate to cosleep, but we don’t want to do this and have another bub due soon.
My 15 month old only started sleeping through the night a few months ago too. Pretty much when my daughter’s sleep regressed. I feel like I had a couple of weeks where I was finally able to sleep again.
I’m due in 6 weeks, and totally exhausted. Once baby comes, I know I’ll be up all hours, but the night wakes now, and potential for them to continue on top of having a newborn is making me really anxious. I was worried about having three under 3.5 without the additional stressor of a long lasting sleep regression from my 3YO.
Any tips? Tricks? Do night lights make a difference? She isn’t distressed/scared when she wakes and has never mentioned the dark. We have tried bribery. Eg stay in your room all night for five nights and you get reward. Even with a high value reward, it took 2 weeks to get to 5 nights, despite her being super motivated and excited.
Please share any tidbits or positive stories. FYI she dropped her last nap last year so she isn’t under tired.