9mth old refusing to sleep climbing up in cot HELP!

[jibberjabber]

DS has been a pretty good sleeper on the whole but lately he's had a bad cold and learnt to be very much more mobile.

When it comes to napping or his evening sleep he won't at all. he's not interested. During the day he's so tired that he screams or moans for about 95% of the time.

I come into his room after about 5/10 minutes of screaming to find him standing/wobbling in his cot. If I cuddle him, he calms down then does it all again.If I leave him he cries and cries and gets himself into such a state that he's worse than when he started.

I am not getting even 5 minutes to myself and finding it so hard.Can't get changed or even showered at this rate and I feel like I'm going bonkers I'm really struggling and very tearful as I'm tired too(he's screaming now as I type this)
Can anyone offer any suggestions

[Chuffed]

dd is sometimes like this (thankfully not all the time) and I lie down with dd in our bed, hook her under my arm to sleep and just lie there. It doesn't take long although sometimes a bit of crying ensues.

[jibberjabber]

Thanks for respoding C

I have tried to do that but the moment he's in his cot he starts to scream again.

I think I'm just fed up with it all.

[debs26]

mine gets straight up if i leave him. atm he likes to sleep lying face down, bum in air. i have to cover him in his blanket and stay with him patting and rubbing his back and making gentle shhh noises. its worth a try, took us a few days to learn the new behaviour but only takes a few mins to get him to sleep now. advantage of this is that he is already in cot when he goes off

[jibberjabber]

I'll have to give that a try Debs

He's sat here now with me,so excise the typing.

at least he's not crying

[debs26]

good luck, i know how hard it is when you are tired. i got idea out of a parenting book from library. important thing is to stick at it so they know what to expect. if you change your behaviour and give up something you start then they get confused and think screaming is the answer! i know from experience with hideously active 4 yr old that it doesnt last forever

[TracyK]

is he teething/in pain. maybe a bit of calpol to help him?
Maybe even co sleeping/cuddling to get him over this little phase. Even to give you some sanity.

[jibberjabber]

Hi Tracey. I know what you mean. I do try to be consistent. His behaviour really has changed quite radically. Gave him his Teetha this morning but it doesn't seem to be working. Gave him Calpol last night etc.

Right now it would be heaven just to get 30 minutes to shower and brush teeth.


Sorry to whine I know this problem isn't the end of the world. It's just I'm an outdoor person and get very frustrated/down at staying indoors.

[TracyK]

I think they say 9-10mo they sometimes get seperation anxiety too.
Can you at least get him to nap with you in bed? Just to break the cycle cos he's prob overtired at the wrong times iykwim.
What I used to do was fill ds up with milk, tiny little bit of calpol (if he was teething), snuggle up with him in my bed and we'd both drift off to sleep.

[jibberjabber]

Tracey, thanks for that the thing is I can't sleep like that-I get too anxious that I'll roll over and smother him. I could try it just to send him off to sleep but the only problem is when he hits the cot he yells. I'm going to have to try something soon

Better see if I get can him down now....
Thanks for all of your suggestions

[moonshine]

Maybe try Medised? I have 9-month old, similarly becoming a bit of a nightmare at night atm, but I think some of it is definitely cos of teething (can see the lumps under gums, red cheeks etc). Medised has antihistamine which usually knocks them out for a bit (but I think you have to use the max dose - seem to remember reading a couple of times on MN that less has the opposite effect.)

Does he have blankets? A sleeping bag can limit them standing to some extent (but you may prove me wrong here!)

[TracyK]

I wouldn't bother moving him to his cot - just have him in double bed with you and put pillows down the other side of him. If you are just napping in the day with him theres less chance of you rolling on him. tbh I don't think there's much chance anytime - you just want to break the non sleeping cycle and get some rest yourself.
or pop him in the car and get him to sleep that way and park up in a side street and go to sleep too.
Also read the babywhisperer or web site www.babywhisperer.com - get to know the sleepy signals and get him to sleep then. I used to try and get ds to sleep before he was anyway near tired - just because gina ford book said he 'should' be sleeping. Waiting till I knew HE wanted to sleep made all the difference.

[mears]

jibberjabber - you say he has had a heavy cold so it might be that he has an ear infection that gets very painful when he lies down. Worth getting him checked by GP.