Moving a toddler into his own room- Help!

[Elopelo]

Have posted many a thread about now 2 year old DS and his struggles with sleep. There has always been some issue with his sleep and my days alternate between crying about it or trying to see the funny side. I am currently 5 months pregnant and worried about being able to cope with a newborn and a toddler. So the urgency to try and improve his sleep.

He has only slept through the night once, wakes up minimum two times a night, can be lots more and still having nights where he is awake for hours on end. Short of CC I have tried what feels like absolutely everything and anything! I try not to dwell on it but right now I just feel like the worst parent in the world. And I can't deal with the patronising comments from people about how I'm not being firm enough and their kids sleep from 7-7.

Up until recently he was sleeping in his cot in our room until he started learning to climb out so made the decision to bring him into our bed whilst we got his room ready.

This is his 2nd night in his room and I have put a mattress on the floor so I can sleep there too. But I am really stuck on how to deal with his night wake ups. He can self settle but when he wakes he will only settle if I pat him or rock him. And last night on the 3rd wake up at 2.30 I was too tired to go back to the mattress so ended up sleeping with him in his bed.

Any tips on how to transition him to his own room and learn to sleep on his own? What do I do when he wakes up in the night? Is having the mattress in the room a good idea or is it actually going to delay things? I am so confused so any help/experience would be great!

[Elopelo]

So currently on the 3rd wake up of the night which has lasted since 12:46a, had to get in his bed as he isn't settling but now he is wide awake....just feel like this is never going to get better

[Elopelo]

DS finally fell asleep around 3am with me in his bed and slept through after that...what am I doing wrong?

[PinGwyn]

Neither of mine slept through the night until 3 so I'm not much help there I'm afraid but does he have a nightlight to help settle him, we got my youngest a portable owl one which she can switch on herself and it goes to bed with her. She also has an audio CD on at bedtime which seemed to help settle her.

Also look at his bedtime routine - are there any cues that it currently does/doesn't work?

My eldest got hyped up in the bath so we did morning baths instead. No TV after 7pm etc.

It's hard going but do what works for you

[Lazypuppy]

OP in my opinion, you are giving very mixed messages. You need to decide what you want the outcome to be, obviously you can't keep sleepig in his room when baby is born, and that will be double whammy of you leaving his room and a new baby.

When we moved my dd to her bed from cot it took a little transition, she qakes probably once a jight but i have to just go in and tuck her back in. I will leave her to whinge or cry, we have always done some for of sleep training/CC but thats because i have never wanted her in my bed, and i wanted her in her own room (my decision, everypnes is different!)

We leave her to play in her room before she goes to sleep if she wants and we bought a gro clock and she is not allowed to call us until the sun is out (8:30am). If she calls before, we tell her to play or go back to sleep until the sun is out. And we don't go intoher at all,we are very considtent. I will only go in in the night to tuck her back in

[Elopelo]

Thanks for your replies.

@PinGwyn We have the same issue with DS and baths. Right now he has some play time in his room with teddies, milk, teeth brushed then I sit with him for a few minutes and then say 'Oh I'm just going to the bathroom, will be back soon.' By the time I'm back he is asleep. The problems are the wake ups afterwards. Its just constant and he wants me to lie down next to him.

@Lazypuppy I understand sleeping with him in his bed is just going to make things worse but in the middle of the night when I'm exhausted I iust give in. It doesn't really help that my DH is totally against any kind of sleep training and just thinks we can all sleep together in the same bed/room and deal with it. I know I need to be stronger tonight and I am going to try not sleeping in his room today and see how it goes.

Thanks again for your time.