6 year old has started waking up in the night??

[tuesday]

Hi,

My 6 year old has a problem which has been going on for a few weeks now, she is waking up at random times in the night for random reasons I have no idea why, nothing has changed, she still goes to bed at the same time and has same bed time routine.

She always wakes up crying, for a drink, dreams, monsters, spiders, toilet, she wants to get into my bed and some times without any excuse there is never a set time but normally after midnight.

I don't really know what to do, I don't want to molly cuddle her so I tell her to go back to sleep because its night time, she settles herself after about 15-20 mins of sorting herself e.g getting a drink, moaning at me to let her in my bed etc. I don't want to let her in my bed she is nearly 7 and this is the only me space I get.

What can I do? Has anyone else ever gone through this?

 

[mystika802]

I went through this with my son, he just turned 7 but I think it was due to new stresses, Im pregnant, we were moving, starting a new school etc.
I believe if you wake up with her she will keep doing it. I told him before bed that he needed to figure it out on his own and I started leaving a bottle of water beside his bed, that way he couldnt say he needed a drink, I also went to the dollar store and bought this "buddha" wall hanger and told him that will keep all the bad dreams etc away. He has never been allowed in my bed and I tell him thats mommy and daddy's space, he didnt do it after that.

 

[opticalillus5]

My daughter went through a phase of doing this when we told her I was pregnant. She's always had problems sleeping because she goes to her dads at the weekend and shares a room with him, yet has her own room at home. But like you said, the last phase she went through it was everything!

The only thing I can suggest is that, like mystika, I tried to solve every single problem I could think of before she went to bed. She has a drink next to her bed, and a boring snack (she used to say she was hungry, but I soon learnt not to give her anything like a biscuit as she might have woke up just for that!). She has a dream-catcher, and I tie a hair bobble onto her doorhandles to keep out monsters. I sprayed her entire room for spiders. Soon, she completely ran out of things that she couldn't do herself, and now she sleeps through.

Just make sure that you don't ever let her sleep in your bed. Cos once she has, she'll know that she can. I imagine that i'm going to go through all of this again when the baby gets here, especially as the moses basket is next to my bed. But I know that eventually she'll sleep through again.

That said, she's never slept through for a prolonged period of time anyway, so i'm kinda used to it.

Sorry i'm not the best example!