formerly good sleeper suddenly getting up at night...often...

[Texas Ag 93]

I am also of the opinion that the nap might be the cause of a lot of the issues. At 3.5, many kids are phasing out the nap, if not dropping it entirely. Maybe you should start to scale it back. I remember reading that you need to look at sleep needs on a full 24 hour cycle and recognize that too much sleep (either day or night) will adversely affect the other.

Other things that come to mind:

1. At 3.5, there is a really big developmental leap, cognitive, verbal etc. I have read lots of parenting forums that describe many sleep and behavior issues in kids this age.
2. The suggestion for the Grow Clock is a good one. I know a lot of people who use one. Basically, you set it for the time you want, like 7 am, and that will show as "Sun Up" or something like that, and you tell your child they cannot come out of their room until the Sun is Up.
3. And although you cannot control when your child wakes up, you absolutely can control when they are allowed to come out of their room, and you should not feel bad about doing so. I, too, used a lock for a brief period of time, but discontinued because I did see it as a potential safety issue.

[mommy2be1053]

I could have wrote your post, word for word, OP!!! i'm going thruogh.the.exact.same thing but i have a 10 month old baby in the mix too!! so between my 3.5 waking us up 2-3 times and baby 1-2x, i'm exhausted!!

for us, since we moved our oldest into his bigger new bedroom with a big boy bed a year ago, he slept in his bed after our nighttime routine of bath, potty, reading books then lights out. He had a nightlight in his room, door is closed but not locked as he hadn't mastered opening his door yet.

over the summer, he started dropping his naps a day here and there to regularly 3-4 a week, with only 2 naps a week, but 3 weeks ago, once he realized he could open his door....a nightmare for us now!!!! he comes into my room saying he wants to sleep with us, wants to read in bed, to saying i'm scared of the windows so i must sleep with mommy, etc. he's potty trained now but wearing pull ups until we run out of our current supply then go dry. I NEED to figure out a better system, as i can't lock his door especially when he needs his potty.

so for now, we've put a gate in his doorway and leaving his door open. That seems to work for us, as he would just yell for me to open the gate around 6:30, i told him that if he stays in his bed EVERY night for next 2-3 weeks we may remove the gate..to gain our trust back...so im hoping it'll work??!

just writing in to say you have my deepest sympathy!!!!!!

[mommy2be1053]

oh ETA....

we stopped his naps at home, as he goes to preschool 3 days a week where he's NOW napping there for an hour because he's so darn tired from his night antics with us...so on the days he's home with us and over weekends, i make a point of no naps to see if it's a culprit.

so far, it seems to be as he puts up much less of a fuss on days he doesn't nap.