How can I get my 2 yr old to stay in her own bed and preferably asleep?

[Piccalilli2]

Hello, hoping the combined wisdom of mumsnet can help me out before I go mad. Dd (who will be 2 in 3 weeks) moved from cot to bed 2 weeks ago as she was starting to scream herself sick at bedtimes. Since going into a bed though she wakes at around 2 a.m. every night, then stays awake for 2 or 3 hours unless she's allowed into our bed. I don't wantr to encourage co-sleeping as I'm pregnant and can't face having her in with us when I get bigger let alone when the new baby arrives. For the last few nights we've been trying a combination of rapid return (with a stairgate on her bedroom door) and sitting with her until she falls asleep again but it isn't really working and if anything it's getting worse. Any advice??

[jk63]

Similar problem although not indentical:

My DS (now 2.5) went into his bed b4 I had planned as one night he was hysterical about going to bed, cried, screamed & threw himself out of his cot 3 times. This was such a shock as he has always been fine at going to bed. We had to take the side off the cot to prevent injury and then he just kept getting out of bed; even in his grobag he shuffled across the floor to our room.

I tried a gradual retreat to no avail so then DH & I hunkered down for a night of returning him to bed every time he got up, no talking, just placed him back in bed, left him, walked back to our room & in he would come again. We took it in turns to return him & must have done so over 100 times. Eventually he settled.

Several hours later he woke, screamed, shuffled into our room again & we did the same, this time we only had to return him several times before he settled.

Next night my DH took over as DS seemed to be more upset with me involved, only had to be returned once or twice.

Next night no getting up.

(DS maintained he was waking through fear,we had recently been to Nat Hist Museum in London & the dinosaurs had frightened him).

This was about 6 months ago & he has been fine since ...... until the last few days when he has started to get upset at going to bed. This time I have been able to provide verbal reassurance by going back into see him once & he has settled. However, if he got the screaming ad dabs again I think we would utilise the rapid return method again.

I think consistency with whatever method you choose is important, don't chop & change.

It felt like a complete nightmare at the time, such a shock to the system but deciding we were not going to go down the route of co sleeping & that we had to try to nip it in the bud straight away kept us determined!

HTH,

Good luck, I know it's horrible but it really will get better.

Hope I haven't gone on too long!

[Piccalilli2]

Thanks for that jk63 - not what I wanted to hear but I know it makes sense. It's just so hard when you're in the middle of it and not getting any sleep (especially as I'm pregnant and knackered). Tonight I will be firm though and hopefully it won't take forever.