Can I have a post please? I’m at my wits end with my 7 year old. Recently she’s…

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Can I have a post please?

I’m at my wits end with my 7 year old.
Recently she’s been acting like a baby to put it bluntly, I don’t mean that harshly, it’s just the best way I can think of putting it.

Nothing drastic has happened and there’s been no changes in our lives or anything, but all of a sudden everything is scaring her, even things she’s never been scared of before. Suddenly she refuses to sleep alone and in her bed, which she’s done her whole life (I never Co slept my doctor advised me against it due to my health at the time).
I’m being kept up until 2am fighting her to get into her bed, I work all day, I’m on my own with her with the exception of weekends when my SO is over, so I’m absolutely shattered which obviously effects my work, rate of housework etc, come home time I just have no energy cos I’m not sleeping until 2am and up at 6am. I also do suffer with anxiety and depression so that has a knock on effect too.
She has a lamp in her room which provides plenty of light, I allow her reading/chill time before her main light gets turned off. She doesn’t watch any shows that aren’t age appropriate, she doesn’t read anything that isn’t age appropriate either.
I’ve tried sitting down and talking to her numerous times about why this is suddenly happening but I get no where. All I get is that she misses how I used to play aeroplanes with her food, change her nappy etc which I haven’t done either for 5 years! She’s 8 in August!

She gets ample attention during the day, I only work school hours so I drop her off, pick her up etc, I even get her to help with dinner and things around the house so I can still give her attention while I’m busy. I do allow her independence and encourage that, she always gets the option to help or so her own thing during the afternoon/evening. I don’t baby her or treat her as such, given she USED to get angry with me if I did. But now suddenly she wants to be babied again.

We live in a flat and below a herd of blinking elephants who stomp around until early hours, this is nothing new, lived here since she was a baby and so have they, it’s something we’re both perfectly used too, but now this seems to be scaring her, she also freaks out if people walk past her widow…which given we live along a main road, happens daily and often. She will ball her eyes out for a little stumble and she’s so clingy.
If it helps with anything this is all pretty much just a night time, during the day she’s usually perfectly okay, but it’s soon as I tell her it’s bed time, suddenly it’s “let’s act like a toddler”.

I’m absolutely drained and it’s causing issues in my relationship too because we only see each other on weekends and we’re getting no intimacy because she’s crawling into the bed with us and refusing to get out. We’ve only been together just under a year so we do need to have that time at night to be alone and have some intimacy.

I’d appreciate any advice that will help me curb this behaviour and get my happy, independent girl back.
Thanks.
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