Mystery sleeping problem - ds 3.3yo...HELP!

[pucca]

Ds has pretty much always been a brilliant sleeper, i have been very lucky. He went from cot to bed no problem, from my room to his own no problem. I also got him used to settling himself, i.e he would go in his room, with the gate shut and go to sleep without me needing to be there.

Recently (the last couple of months) he has been waking at least a couple of times a night wanting me, which i very stupidly mainly because of being so tired either got in with him or let him come in my bed and now i am stuck in a rut with the whole situation

He will not go to sleep alone anymore, i have to sit with him while he goes off, and if i don't go in during the night he screams the house down, which is no good for poor dd (6yo) who has school etc.

I have tried a bit of bribery, i have tried being stern but nothing is helping and i am at my wits end and exhausted.

Any help would be gratefully recieved, i am hoping someone has been here before and has some advice.

[pucca]

bump

[pucca]

Ok...thanks anyway

[foxinsocks]

hi pucca

we had a similar thing when ds had a very nasty infection at that age (double ear infection and a chest infection) and I slept with him until he was better because the doctors were so concerned about him. Once he recovered, he could not bear for me not to sleep with him - he had got used to me being there.

I'm afraid the only thing that changed was being tough, which I found incredibly hard and it did take weeks for him to get the message. I really don't know how else to break the pattern because doing it in a gentler way just wouldn't work with ds.

[pucca]

Thanks foxinsocks....i really appreciate the advice, its driving me nuts

[foxinsocks]

I'm not surprised pucca. I tear my hair out when this happens (and it happened a few times as ds used to get breathing problems and we would always go through this afterwards as I would sleep close to him in case anything happened).

It's emotionally wearing too as it's horrible hearing them cry. I hope it's over for you soon and things go back to normal.