18 month old - night time waking and cotbed situation

[dldl]

Hello!

Am coming here for advice please. DS has had his moments with sleep like all babies but on the whole is a good sleeper apart from when he's ill and had that horrible early morning waking phase that i reckon most babies go through at some stage (but thankfully well past that now)!

Anyway...we've had a few months of good 12 hour night time sleeping. Usually settles just before 7pm. Daytime nap at lunchtime is normally around 45 mins - 1 hour, occasionally 1.5 hours. For the last couple of weeks DS has been waking up absolutely hysterical at about 2am pretty much on alternate nights. I can hear that he is standing up in his cotbed and go in straight away (he did used to occasionally wake up some point in the night with a small wimper but would be lying down and go back to sleep himself). Going to bed these last couple of weeks has also been more effort, and he will always cry when I leave the room, mostly only for 1 -2 minutes and then goes quiet. It used to be that we read a story, turned on his night light, had a little chat and then I'd go out and leave him to get himself to sleep.

Last night (and admittedly a couple of other nights), I have taken him into our bed as I was just so tired. The truth is that there's a bed in his room too that's spare. It seems that as soon as he is out the cot, and gets put down on a bed (mine or the spare bed), he goes quiet with a bit of chit chat to himself and then drifts off.

Do you think he maybe just doesn't like being trapped in his cot? He has attempted climbing out but hasn't yet managed to climb out of his cotbed...he still has a Grobag on.

What do you suggest I do? Do you have any other suggestions for why he might be waking up? I don't think it's teeth - he has tonnes!!

[dldl]

I posted this thread a while ago, and rather than post a new thread i thought I'd follow on from this one and see if anyone has any advice!!

To summarise - always been a relatively good sleeper (except for getting back into it after being ill and for a short early morning waking phase). Recently been a lot more difficult in the evenings. Had episodes of night time waking 6 weeks ago which settled fortunately.

Now 19 months old....settling at night is a real struggle. Will only settle if he knows we are right outside the room. Will stand up and scream hysterically until we come back in to reassure him, read another story, lie him back down and tell him we'll be sitting right outside the room. Even then he will keep calling out 'mummy' to check I'm still there.

There have been lots of changes in the last couple of months...new room at nursery, I have new job with shift work and not always the one putting him to bed, DH was away for work for over a week, etc etc.

Could this all be related to separation anxiety (which has never been an issue in the past)? What is the best way to deal with it? He used to settle totally on his own. Am feeling exhausted from it...my evenings are disappearing because I sit outside his room until he is totally calm and pretty much falling asleep. Suggestions and advice welcome.

Sorry for the slightly incoherent post - a tired mummy here!!

[Snowgirl1]

I think they must go through a phase at this age of feeling separation anxiety at bedtime. My DD (18 months) used to be quite good at settling to sleep - a little bit of bleating then settled down, but now she stands in her cot screaming unless one of us is physically in the room with her (and even that doesn't work sometimes).

Our DD has also gone from sleeping through the night to waking every night and only settling if one of us is in the room with her. She takes a long time to fall back to sleep again and if we try to sneak out before she's totally asleep, she notices we've left and the screaming starts again.

'Fraid I don't have any suggestions (I came to this board hoping for some ideas to improve things) - just sharing the pain. Hoping someone else will be along with some suggestions soon...

[Shenanagins]

We had the same problem but i just took him into our bed as i didn't have the energy to do anything else in the middle of the night.

He is now 2.3 years old and recently put into his big bed which to be honest i was dreading but overall its been a huge success. He will still come through to ours but more often than not it is around 6/7am. Nothing else changed so it took us by surprise.

[Snowgirl1]

We had 55 mins of crying and screaming at bedtime last night (and that was with me in the room with her all the time and having brought her bedtime forward by 30 mins in case the tears were due to overtiredness). Then at 4am, we had about 40 minutes of crying and screaming, again with me in the room. We tried bringing her into our bed the night before last and it didn't work particulary well. Anyone out there with any suggestions on what we can do to help DD settle without tears at bedtime and when she wakes at night ? It's heartbreaking and frustrating in equal measure (and exhausting [tired emoticon]).

[Snowgirl1]

I wonder if converting her cot to a cot bed is the answer - so she doesn't feel trapped in her cot?