She won’t sleep... now what?

My lovely little monster has decided that she can't sleep until its "dark", which of course is not till well after 8.30pm and her bed time is 7pm.

Over the past week she has been playing up every night, grizzling, crying, screaming, one night she even ripped half the wallpaper off her wall. I know her cast is probably giving her a bit of gyp but it started before then.

The problem is that the late nights make her tired, so she falls asleep in the car on the way home from daycare at 5pm an even tho I wake her as soon as we get home, that 5-10mins sleep is enough to hype her up half the night. Then the next morning she is tired again, so it's a viscious cycle...

Last night Willie ended up lying on her bed until she fell asleep (he fell asleep too lol). I want to just leave her an let her get on with it like I always have whenever we have had rough patches. She eventually gets the message after a few nights of grizzling and gives up. But this destruction (she also wrecked her venetian blinds) makes me soooo mad!

Any suggestions? I don't know that there is anything I can do except ignore her, but I am soooo frustrated!

Arna went through this a few weeks ago and we put the "black-out" curtains up. Sounds like she has blinds so what I would suggest is to get some fabric (black / black out) and put it up behind her blinds so her room is dark... Hope you get the gist of that.

I have also noticed if Arna falls asleep in the car and I leave her in there to sleep with the windows open (I usually just sit outside until she wakes up) when she does wake up she is still in her "normal" bed time routine and if I wake her up she does the opposite and stays up half the night... Yesterday I woke her up and she was up until 10pm

So those are things that work with Arna... They might work on Maya... GOOD LUCK EMMA!!

That's alright Emma, when you have done the makeover and she is still playing up (hopefully she isn't) then ask her why she doesn't want to go to bed until its dark. Sometimes there is psycological issues like "Monster in the closet" etc...

Not so much spoiling the makeover, more like wanting the grandparents to foot the bill

Here is Maya's take on monsters in the closet Lena, she makes me laugh...
http://www.ohbaby.co.nz/default.asp?categoryID=8&subcategoryID=114&pageID=212

I remember that!! Quite amazing how a child's mind works.

I'm soooo lucky that the landlord has already arranged to paint the whole interior of the house, so they're not too bothered about the missing wallpaper. But I was sooooo mad! And it was the night before she went to have her surgery so I didn't feel I could really growl her. But I was trying not to laugh at the same time coz it was kinda funny.

My car's going to the garage tomorrow which is right next to spotlight, so will check out their curtains while I'm there.

arent children just sooooooo"helpful"