After an enthusiastic embrace of the new toddler bed and love-at-first sight with the ghost, the kid has had a really rough week sleepwise.
Most nights, the problem's been not going to sleep. The first couple of nights were great, but then she started waking up in the middle of the night--3,4,5 AM--sounding like it's 9:00, and asking for her morning milk fix.
But the ongoing problem quickly became going to bed. Whether it's the slight change of routine--story in her bed instead of in the rocker--or the giddy liberation of no bars, she would just. not. go to. sleep. She'd just play and chatter and call out and drive us inexorably crazy. 8-8:30 would stretch to 10-11:30, easy, cutting right into prime time; the hours after the kid goes to sleep are the most productive and old-school normal around the house.
Then last night, after going and staying in bed like a good kid, she woke up between 3 and 5, crying for Mommy every thirty minutes or so. I was useless; my presence just made her cry louder, which pissed everyone off that much more. It wasn't until we'd given up, around 5:30, that my wife finally coaxed an explanation from the sobbing, writhing, semi-conscious creature who kept asking if it was morning yet, she wanted it to be morning: she didn't want to sleep again because her legs hurt.
Turns out growing pains can cause you agonizing suffering at night even if you didn't live through the 1980's.
Just keep an eye on the growing pains in the middle of the night. If her knees swell up, or it keeps up for a couple weeks, get your rear (and hers) to the doctor.
Monster had a similar problem, waking up at night crying that his legs hurt. As it turns out (6 weeks of being a bad parent later) he has juvenille arthritis.
i'm keeping my fingers crossed for you... that they don't last as long as mine did. as a kid i dealt with "growing pains" for years. i remember being awake, crying for hours while my mum tried to massage the pain away. had several sets of tests and ex-rays that concluded that there was absolutely nothing wrong with me.
Brings back memories... they can last a long time, yeah. I went from 5'2" to 5'8" in about 10 months when I was 13 or so; it wasn't a fun time.
Man, I'm not there yet with the kid...and quite frankly, you're scaring me a little
We plan on keeping our twins in their wonderful cribs for as long as possible. I can just imagine they'll both get out of bed and just start playing with their stuffed animals, and when we went to check up on them, they be passed out on one of their Ugly Dolls.
Not looking forward to that transition.
My son woke up in the middle of the night crying a few times and was inconsolable. We finally figured out it was because he had to pee really badly, but wasn't really awake or coherent enough to put it together and just go to the bathroom. So now if he does it, we just park him in front of the potty and he pees, half-asleep, and then goes right back to bed.
Not necessarily relevant for your daughter now, but maybe in the future.