Almost 3 and waking crying

[Tori's Mom]

My dd is almost 3 and she has been potty trained for about 3 weeks now.  She has started to fight her naps and will only nap every 3 days or so.  She will not wear a diaper overnight so we have to wake her about 2 hours after she goes to bed at night to go potty.  She usually just pees and goes back to sleep.  She will average 11 hours a night but will wake up a couple of times crying.  She is having nightmares sometimes and others she is just rambling and really out of it.  I know that she is overtired but I am not sure how to combat this right now.  She will not sleep in mornings.  She wakes at 7am most every morning and is more combative during the day due to being tired.
Any ideas?  I know that the potty training is a major life change and has messed with her sleep.  We also have a 2 1/2 month old so my lo has had a HUGE couple of months.  How do I ease her back into her independent, sound sleep pattern?

[Layla]

Can you tell me what time she goes to bed?

Her fighting naps is quiet normal at this age as alot of toddler around this age tend to start fighting naps & might take a nap every couple of days or so. Some will go through a phase of not napping at all & then will go back to napping.

How do you respond to her at night now when she wakes? What do you do? What time does she go to bed if she hasn't napped?

She might be waking up from all the changes... potty training, new-ish baby & overtiredness from not napping. I would say on the days she has not napped put her down to bed about 7pm... allow her a 12hr night so that she can make up for the lost sleep. My 32mo dd doesn't nap everyday either... in fact she did a record last week & not napped 5 days in a row. Before that she would probably nap about 3 out of 7 days. I would say still offer her quiet time & at least give her the chance to recharge her batteries for the afternoon. I put my dd to bed at 6pm & she often does a 12hr night

Is she actually dry for the rest of the night (after the time you take her 2hrs into her nightsleep) or will she wake you for pees as well?

Layla

[Lilah'sMommy]

When our DD2 was born, we had TONS of NWings from DD1 (she was 2 years, 4 months when DD2 was born, but the peak of bedtime battles and NWing was at 2.5 years, or when DD2 was 2 months old).  It's a major source of stress and a very common cause of NWings for toddlers.  (I just wish someone had warned me about that beforehand. ).  I was lucky enough that DD1 was still napping solidly, so didn't have the no-nap transition going on at the same time contributing to the OTness.  The OT you can manage a bit by ensuring she gets a 12-hour night on days she doesn't nap (though we are in the dropping the nap phase, too, and that in and of itself is causing NWings for DD1).  The new baby situation will slowly improve, but what helped us tremendously was making the bedtime wind-down really long and relaxing.  Like an hour, including books, massage, storytelling, and music.  That helped her wind down enough and also gave her lots of one-on-one attention from us.  Things are pretty good now with her night-time sleep, now we just need to sort out her sister....