Ds (nearly 2) won't sleep alone!

[sadsong]

He has done previously although has always been a light sleeper. However I've been ill recently and the routine has slipped. Dhs fault, but I need to fix it. I would add this is my 5th baby and not the first time I've done this with a ds. Dh keeps undoing all my good work :(

So tonight I have done all the good things, bath, story, song, calming talk, milk. I put him in his cot about an hour ago and have done its time for bed now, lay down, walked out, listened to him cry for 10, back in for 10, no eye contact, shhhhh patting back, while he continues to stand in cot crying for daddy to rescue him, out again for 10 mins crying, back in for 10 and so on. Should I extend it to 15s?

Last night dh had him sleeping on his head on the sofa. It's got ridiculous. So despite the fact I'm post surgery I've got to take over.

Any thoughts he's been quiet 15 seconds?! Oh no yelling again! I'm pretty calm about crying babies, I'm sitting outside his room as at 2yr I know another of my sons was quite capable of climbing out.

He's been quiet for 47 elephants!

Not sure whether we're a great example to follow, but ds, also nearly 2, has recently started being a nightmare to put down too. He self settled off to sleep since 5mo but few weeks ago started screaming at bedtime. So we took the cot side off.

Oops.

He now won't go to bed easily, but can also get out of it! So we sit by his bed until he falls asleep. He is likely also dropping his nap, but we're refusing to accept that at the moment
We couldn't handle leaving him to cry so are going to persevere with the bed.

Like I said, probably not best example!

He must have slept for about 30 mins, but crying intermittently now. I'm loathed to take cot side down until he's in a better routine again, for safety reasons. He's at the top of a very tall town house. Directly outside his door there's a set of steep stairs. He can probably reach the door handle and I'd be terrified he'd fall down. There is a stair gate obviously but only takes a sibling to accidentally leave it open and ....

He's quiet again now. I'm under no illusion this could take several nights!

Good luck! We're a bit stuck with staying with him until he falls asleep for now until he's 10
Ds also has steep stairs outside his door, can reach the handle, and has absent minded parents dh who leave it open accidentally! There again, he's fallen down one flight of stairs and survived as a 10mo

How long do you sit with him? Does he cry and scream? Or just happy you're their?

Think our ds has forgotten how to go to sleep on his own but he's sleeping soundly for now.

So today it's taken about 2-3 hrs all told. Inc the half hour sleeping then waking up again. How long do you sit with your ds?

It varies. If he's had an afternoon nap (now banned!) he can take 1-2hrs to go down. Usually though its about 40mins, sometimes only 10-15mins. His bed has a guard, so we sit with our back to the gap (so he can't get out) and after a bit of climbing over us/shouting/rolling around/shaking the guard, he usually settles down gives up and sucks his thumb to get off to sleep.

I've found it hard as I'm not a patient mum at the best of times! Having my phone and surreptitiously mn'ing helps though

Ds gets absolutely hysterical when left to cry so it's not worth it for us seeing as he gets too worked up to do anything, let alone sleep! The 6am wake up calls aren't great (he wanders in!) but we figured we'd have to transition at some point.

Hope yours is still down...

He is sleeping soundly thankfully. I wondered about the clambering bit! I've never tried the shh shh thing, so thought I'd give that a go tonight. He does get himself quite wound up, so at that point I'd go back in and sit with him for 10.

Ill let you know if it works as in only on night one. It's do frustrating, as this is the 4th time I've had to do this as dh just gives in, then moans he's not sleeping.

My eldest is now 15 (he was officially the worst sleeper ever). I think I'm much more patient now. But not with teenagers!