he Just Won't Sleep unless in arms

[ItsAHollyJollyTee]

My son is 18 months the day after tomorrow. He was a fabulous sleeper until just before his 1st birthday when he had chicken pox. This has been followed by 6 months of one chest/ear/throat infection after another. His sleep has gone to pot.

We have always done the 'rock to sleep' method, I have never been able to leave him to cry and never needed to. Until he got ill I could even put him down partially awake and he'd go to sleep.

But now he just won't sleep unless he's either in our bed with either DH or I (we have a spare room so we've been alternating sleeping with him) or if he's in someone's arms. He will nap in his pram if I catch him just right.

We wait until we're sure he's asleep, heavy in our arms, dummy half out of his mouth, snoring. As soon as we stand up to move him to cot, he wakes up. Once in awhile we can get him down, but usually it's like tonight, where DH has been trying to get him to settle for nearly an hour.

Tonight he was left to cry due to my desperately needing a wee and DH being in the middle of something he couldn't just stop. Son cried for less than 5 minutes before puking.

What do we do now? We want our evenings back. We want to sleep in the same bed again.

I'm at the end of my rope. Anyone?

Polar that sounds like a nice idea. I will look into getting one.

And, yes, this too shall pass...eventually...

Sorry Polar!!

LOL Iggly I forgive you :) sleep couldn't really get much worse here (famous last words! I may regret saying that) and he is super cute and just loves his cuddles so its hard to refuse him :)

ItsAHolly we use this one and just take the top bit off

and a friend says this one is very good

Hope one of these might help, and that you manage to get some sleep, broken sleep is horrible and no sleep is hideous!

We have the rainforest one but I find it quite noisy and stilted for trying to get DD to sleep. Instead we have an old iPod in her room with some speakers and loaded up the drive with classical soothing stuff. Then we put it on at bedtime (Or if we're having a bad night) quietly and put the sleep timer on for an hour or so.

We also take it with us whenever we go away for the night.

I think the old iPod is a good idea. We may have one around here somewhere.

He's feeling better so DH is trying to settle him in his cot tonight but I don't think it's going to work. Again.

My bad leg is really acting up so I really can't sit with DS or sit next to his cot or anything.

I may try the mattress on the floor idea.

I had nightmare sleep issues with my dd until she turned 2. Every night it took hours to get her down and she would scream madly unless I was holding her. I remember how despairing I felt and, like you, could never bear to leave her to cry. What worked - almost immediately, within a few nights - was taking off the bars of her cot, changing it into a cot bed. She must have felt trapped in the cot. Now she settles down to sleep well - it's not perfect, I still lie on the floor beside her bed, otherwise she'd jump out after me, but these days am usually off and away with 15 mins...this routine is all set to crumble as new baby arriving in next month!! But could you try getting him out if his cot and into a bed? I would never have believed the impact it made.

There may be some usful advice in the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. You could borrow it from the library to save spending money....mind you at 18 months I still BF my DD to sleep and we co-slept and some nights it took for ever...Now she is 3 and fast asleep in her own bed..self settling and everything..something I never believed would happen at 18 months!!!

Deeded DH and I have been discussing that very thing. I think that is our next step.