Any help, suggestions, ideas NEEDED !

Stay with her. Once she knows you aren't going to leave move to sitting next to the bed and gradually move further away every few nights. My 2 year old is doing the same at the moment. The sleep store has some good info.

My DD did this for a while about the same age - after being in her bed for a few months absolutely fine she decided to kick up about it.

I did a combo of a fwe things, I tried taking her back to bed without communicating, tucked her back, waited until she stopped crying and then walked out - this sometimes worked, but most often didn't I also tried just closing the door and letting her cry for a while before taking her back - 3 minutes the first time, 4 minutes the next etc. It was a stressful and horrible time - she didn't do it every night, but about 4 out of 7 she did.

In the end I think she got sick of it, and she also dropped her day sleep so that she was far more tired at bedtime so went straight to sleep. She still wakes sometimes in the nght and as long as she stays in her bed/room there is nothing that we can do so we leave her to it.

She might be wanting your reassurance that you are there, and love her - so the biggest and hardest thing I learnt was that I couldn't get cross with her - stay calm and stick to whatever plan you decide to go with.

Good Luck!

Thanks Bel & EsmesMum.

We have had a bit of progress, taking advice from you ladies and reading online.

Instead of taking an hour or more to get her to sleep - she is now falling asleep withing 15-20mins!!!

What I have found works is, when we read her books before bed, we get her to choose 3, and before we read the third, we tell her it's the last one, then bedtime. We find she is now running to her room and getting into bed herself. I sit on her bed with her just saying goodnight, telling her it's time for sleep and reasure it's ok, I will just be outside her room. But also tell her if she gets out of bed I have to shut the door. So far, she hasn't got out of bed once, will whinge a little bit, but I (or DH) just have to stand in the hallway, and every couple of minutes poke our head around the corner so she can see we are still there. We make the time between each one longer, and so far it is working!!

Now just to get her to stay in her bed when she wakes in the middle of the night! As soon as she opens her eyes, she is out of bed and into our room. I am having to put her back to bed, and sit on the floor next to her bed, till she dozes off.(the above won't work, as I would have to turn the light on for her to see me) This is working so far, where she will fall asleep within 20mins or so... and stays there till about 6.30am - or 5.30am! Odd though, as she has been waking around 1am every night!

I hope this is a phase, for us all...... someone has also mentioned to me that maybe she is ready to cut out her day sleep? But will see how she goes...