Help! Toddler suddenly started screaming when put to bed - because I'm pregnant?

[MrsMichic]

Hi mums

Just wondering whether anyone has been in the same situation as me. My toddler is 21 months and he's a happy little thing. He's always slept really well, through the night from 9 weeks, never minds going to bed etc. However just lately he's started screaming like he's being murdered when I put him to bed. When I pick him up out of the cot he clings to me like he's scared and I have to hold him until he falls asleep on me. If I put him back before he's asleep the killing me screaming starts again. I am 5 months pregnant (and huge) - could he realise this? And be feeling insecure? Or are those feelings to complex for a toddler? I only work 2 days and he comes to work with me (family business) so we spend most days together.

Tonight I did let him cry it out in the end after being in his room for 45 minutes. I don't want him to be unhappy but I don't want to make a rod for my own back and cuddle him to sleep every night. Anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks!!

hi im new on this, this is actually my first msg so excuse any mistakes! i have 3 kids an 11yr old ,2yr old and 10 month old so went thru the toddler and preggers thing and i think they do know something is going on but they also just go thru stages of insecurity anyway, my two yr old has done the screaming at nite thing so i started a completely different bedtime routine while i was preggers and it seemed to work, maybe u could try that?

Hi there, thanks for that - reassuring to know I'm not the only one! What bedtime routine did you do when you were preggers? And is your 2 yr old ok with the baby - I am really worried my son wont like the new bub :-(

well he wasnt too interested at first but they get along most of the time, as long as she dosent get too fond of any of his toys, then he gets a bit precious!

i started getting him to do little things for himself at bedtime such as picking which toothpaste (we always have about 3 on the go) and finding a book which i would have pushed under the quilt so he had to get into bed to reach it and then just being really enthusiastic about the story and stuff we had done in the day, distraction tactics work!

also looking out the window to say goodnight to the cars, birds, houses etc

Those are really good suggestions - thank you. I guess we just stuff him in and say goodnight! Thanks, that's made me feel lots better :-) x

We had a couple of runs of this sort of behaviour - turned out he was teething (molars and canines). We gave calpol once we realised it was tooth related, and felt terrible that we hadn't realised.

We had been dealing with the specific incidences of hysteria by going in and reassuring, then going in 5 mins later then 10 and by the next time, he was asleep (apart from a few times when we took him to our bed, but then none of us slept). The episodes only lasted a few days each batch but it was very alarming as he did seem to be suddenly frightened of going to bed, when previously he had always been a good sleeper.

Hope it sorts itself out, it is horrible when they seem distraught and you can't work out what is wrong.

My DD did this around this time .... i sorted it out by putting a futon on the floor for her to sleep on (she absolutely refused to go in the cot ... and when she realised she was falling asleep on our bed and ending up in her cot she would cry and also cling on like a limpet!) She then went into a single bed with a bedguard ....