2 year old waking 4am

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

Hi all, I would love some advice as my husband and I are so tired!!!
I have a 2 year old and and 5 months pregnant. Our toddler has always slept amazingly, usually right through to 7am. We decided to try him in a toddler bed with guard as he's getting so big and we were anticipating having to deal with him climbing from the cot (he never tried this) in the future when we're dealing with new baby. We thought we were being organised.
Anyway basically since moving into his big boy bed his is taking at least an hour to settle (before he would nod off straight away) he just keeps leaping out of bed until he's exhausted and passes out. He is then waking at least once around midnight and settles easily usually but then is waking around 4 and demanding to come in bed with us. Sometimes he will then settle for another hour or two, sometimes not and all of us aren't getting much sleep. It's been 3 weeks now.
Has anyone got any advice. I'm concerned as I can't have him in bed with us and a new baby potentially in a few months. Some thoughts I've had are to abandon th cot bed and put him back to the cot (no guarantee this will work like before), alternate nights with husband so at least one of us has a good night each nigbt (although toddler usually only wants me at night) or do we try a baby gate on his door and try a bit of cry it out, which seems so mean. We have been spoiled having such a good sleeper for so long and I'm kicking myself for messing with the status quo when it was working and I didn't need to potentially. Please help!

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

Or other option was to stick it out and hope it improves?! I read the is a regression around this time so it could be bad timing with that and the clocks going back. I'm clutching at straws because I have no idea!

[Aria2015]

Can you try putting him back in the cot? My ds was nearly 4 when we moved him out of his cot and into his cot bed. We hadn't done it sooner because he'd never tried to climb out. Being older, we could have a proper chat with him about his 'big boy' bed and what was expected of him and we had a smooth transition.

Otherwise perhaps try a grow clock to attempt to stop early wake ups out of bed?

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

I feel like it would be going backwards and we will have to deal with this at some point. But maybe that's silly and we should just accept he isn't ready

[m4d0]

We have a stair gate on the door abs whilst he sometimes does y go straight to sleep out DS will happily chat to himself then go to bed abs in the morning will play sometimes before calling for us. I would go gate abs brave for a bit to see if he settles. I know might seem mean but if he can't get out the room might be more inclined to go back to sleep.

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

Yeah I could try a stair gate but he wakes crying and seems very distressed. I'm debating whether to try the cot tonight and see if he miraculously sleeps through again

[Aria2015]

Try not to think of it as going backwards. He possibly just isn't ready and is a bit too young. He won't be in a cot forever and the older he gets, the better he'll take the transition and the easier it will be to communicate the change. Good luck!

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

My worry is that it'll be even harder dealing with these wakings with a newborn. And my mum is pressuring me to persevere as it'll get better, but there's no way of knowing that!

[Dustysilkflowers]

My four year old woke up at 3:30am this morning asking to get up/needed a cuddle/wanted breakfast. Was awake for around 40 mins.

I had to get up at 5:30 😭😭

I’ve had shit sleep since my seven year old was born ...