Divide and Conquer!!!

It's been almost a year since our daughter started her sleeping problem. Frankly, she has never been a good sleeper even when she was a baby but we forced and stood our ground until she was on a sleeping schedule and it worked for the most part of her life until she turned 4 years old. I don't know what it was about her turning 4 but our happy child turned into a defiant, I know more than you kind of girl and she pushed, demanded, just tried to wear my hubby and myself down. It was a battle of who could last the longest. We would look at our little girl thinking is she ours? She can't be our sweet little girl can she? It seemed like she changed over night. Lately, she's been wanting to sleep neither with the hubby or myself. Last night she moved into our bed with me and the hubby got moved into sleeping with the boy. I think we're setting up a bad habit with him and we'll be putting an end to that tonight. Our son doesn't need to have a sleeping problem. He's the sleeper in the family and I want to keep it like that. I don't know if I can handle two kids who can't sleep. That would be the worst. All we got out of all this is she's scared to sleep. She won't tell us why she's scared but she doesn't want to sleep alone. My hubby and I had long talks about what to do with her. We all need our sleep and good sleep then broken up sleep through out the night. I figured now it's better to get her having a good night sleep then having a struggling match with her at 4:00 am. It's hard and of course, you want your child to feel secure. I want her to feel safe and where to start is the challenge. How do you let your child know you love them without making them feel rejected especially at night? It just breaks my heart really, and is this something we need to fix now and are we doing the right thing now or are we making it worse for her? What is the right thing to do? Is this a battle we want to keep going on down the road or just let this one go and we as her parents let her have this fight. It's figuring out why she's scared is the real question here and when she doesn't know how to express herself with words is the hard part. I guess we'll have to keep listening to her and keep telling her over and over how much love she is and we all love her. She's special and a wonderful little girl who has feelings. She'll be five in a few weeks and being 5 maybe it will be less scary for her. It's just tough as a mother to feel defeated by a 4 year old over her sleep. She sure is a strong determined child and smart for her own good sometimes. It's a journey for sure and this life challenge with our battle over her sleep has made me tired and worn down but I must move forward and keep trying to make her feel less scared. Some day it won't be a struggle. Take care, Peace!!!