My 5-yr-old daughter is suddenly afraid to sleep by herself. We moved to this home last summer and she had her own room for the first time ever. Previously she shared a bedroom with her two brothers ages 3 and 7. All was fine until about a month ago. First she would wake up once in a while and want to crawl in bed with me and my husband. She did this a few times. Then I believe she had some kind of significant nightmare and was unable and unwilling to sleep in her room alone. As far as we can determine, there is no other reason for this disruptive sleep behavior. She says she only likes daytime. We've tried many strategies that we've read about: nightlights, "monster powder," sprinkling holy water, a Jesus doll that she requested, praying with her, letting her sleep on the floor next to our bed, letting her fall asleep on the couch and moving her to her room later, letting her sleep with one of her brothers while the other sleeps in her bed, rewards, punishments (not playing with friends, no computer or video games), spanking, yelling, sitting with her until she falls asleep--you name it, we've tried it. The bottom line is she wants to be with me, her mother, all the time at night. That's her favorite repetitive line night after night: "I want to be with you, Mommy." The minute I tuck her in and start walking out of the room, she starts crying. This is placing a tremendous amount of stress on our entire family. She is an exceptionally determined and strong-willed child and will stop at nothing to get her way. She can scream at the top of her lungs for hours. No one can get any rest, especially me. The only thing that she seems to want is to sleep in bed with me. And that is the one thing my husband and I are adamant about. We agree with Dr. Phil on the drawbacks of co-sleeping. We absolutely do not want her sleeping in our bed on a regular basis. I know that with her personality type, it will turn into a long-term commitment. We are not willing to make that sacrifice. It would be detrimental to our relationship and to our entire family's well-being because I would carry around a tremendous amount of resentment at how she manipulated us into allowing it. I'm already feeling a lot of negativity and resentment toward her, and so does my husband. She is getting her way by taking away all my sleep time and having me spend that time trying to get her to sleep. We have four other children, all boys, ages 3, 7, 15 and 20. None of them have ever given us the problems with bedtime that our daughter has. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could suggest a book or an effective strategy that I can implement NOW before I lose what little sanity I have left! PLEASE!!!!
