14 month old sleep (or lack of!)

[nosleepforus]

My DS has always been an ok sleeper until the last couple of months. He won't fall asleep on his own, although he has dropped off a few times by himself on the floor . But generally we have to rock him. Once he's asleep we put him down and he will wake up between 2 and 4, and he will just not settle, we bring him into bed with us and he wriggles, climbs on us and occasionally sleeps. So we end up getting very broken up sleep for the last few hours of the night. For the past week we've tried shush pat method which worked ok at first but when he woke up in the night it failed miserably. We also tried controlled crying but after all of FOUR minutes he threw up and was screaming as if he was being murdered so I don't think I can put either of us through that again.

I'm ready to give in and co sleep and see if that helps but one of us would have to sleep on the sofa as our bed is just not big enough for 3 of us. Plus all I can think of is horror stories of 10 year olds still in bed with their long suffering parents.

I did think of changing his cot into a cot bed and trying the place him back in bed method but think he's probably too young?

Any ideas what's causing all the whimpering/unsettling? We've tried water and milk but no joy.

Any other ideas more than welcome

[Elephanty21]

Hi,

I came on here to do my own thread about my 14 month old's sleep. I guess I don't really have much advice, only sympathy.

In my case he has been a very good sleeper, sleeping through since he was around 7 months old. He used to settle himself to sleep very easily, we didn't need to do any controlled crying etc, he just did it by himself. It has now been a month of screaming every bedtime. It definitely started with teething as molars started coming, and they are still coming….I just don't know if it could still be pain related? I have done calpol/nurofen some nights and given it an hour before so it has definitely kicked in by bedtime, but it makes no difference, nor do teething gels and powders.

I also think it might be separation anxiety related.

We have to cuddle or rock him, stroke him, or we give the dummy which often works (he doesn't normally have one but I don't care at this point).

Once he is asleep he is sleeping through most nights but some nights he wakes crying and we have had one or two nights where he wakes and is awake for hours (two nights ago he woke at 10.30pm and didn't go back to sleep until 3am despite me trying every trick in the book).

I'd also welcome any ideas. It is really upsetting me hearing him cry like this, he sounds so distressed :-(

[nosleepforus]

It's awful isn't it ? Have you tried any other methods ?

I do think he's become a lot more attached to me lately, he's always been very happy to be left with anyone so maybe my smugness has caught up with me .

I think he just needs to learn to self settle, the shush pat method worked well last night, he was gone within minutes but then sure enough up again at 2. It's so frustrating!

Co sleeping is just a nightmare as we only have a small double so I'm going to persevere but I can see how easy it is to just give in.