Help! Night 2 with no side on the cot and our 2 yr old is still awake 2.5 hours later.

[Cherry85]

Our 2 year old ninja decided it was time to break out of the cot the other night and fell flat on his face ..... so to avoid any further injuries we took the side off the cot yesterday. We also made his room safe and added a baby gate to the door to keep him contained if he did get up.

Last night we let him fall asleep on us then popped him in his bed and he slept straight through until 8 then got up and played for a bit before asking for us.....it was bliss!

Tonight however is HELL!! I just can't get him to fall asleep in it. I have tried leaving him, then tried lying with him in it. I've now been sat for an hour at the foot of it pushing his head back down when he sits upright every 10 mins. He is calm and quite happy but just not for sleeping.

What do I do? Do I leave him and just pick him up and put him back in whenever he falls asleep? Do I stay until he is asleep?

I should add that we all currently have covid so nap times have been a bit out of whack today - but not to the extent he should still be awake at half 9 at night.

Before taking the side off he was great. We would read a book, put him in the cot with the Toni on and he would lie and self settle to sleep....
That hasn't worked at all tonight.

Any advice appreciated!

I would just follow normal routine, story, 'toni' and leave him to sleep settle as long as he is happy. Might take a few days.

I’d leave him to it.

All toys out of reach and leave him as you would have before

Maybe not much use for tonight but do you have one of this bed rails for the side? So he can get out if really needed but stop him falling out?
Might help make him feel more secure and safe. He might feel a little scared.

I found that with one of mine, sleep routine went crazy when we turned the cot into cot bed and I do remember the cot getting reassembled at 2 in the morning until we got the side rail and that helped

Leave him to it, we did same as you with a stair gate.if he's happy.i just tried to get dd to at least stay in bed with toys etc so she would then lie down when tired

Buy a bed guard rail so that he can get out if he needs but he won't roll out

Also the act of clicking it up in place signifies bed time and he will feel safe as well

No idea, looking to join for help as well

Ds is 21 months. Can climb out of cot, and over stair gate. How do I stop him escaping?

Last night it took 2.5hrs. Up and down like a yo-yo, trying to escape room ( can open door as well unless I lock which I don’t really want to do). Eventually I spent the last hour with him in my bed and me pretending to sleep and he fell asleep next to me, and then I moved him.

Nap time was 1hr faffing, and then he didn’t even sleep. So was awake 7.10am until 10.45pm. Was wide awake again this morning at 6am..

This happened with us for a few weeks when we removed the cot it was hard work. All is fine now goes down like a dream and sleeps 12 hours. I told my daughter the kids who fall asleep the quickest have the best dreams and it seems to work 🤣

Hi OP,
What happened last night in the end?
We had three nights of this when we took the cot side off but then things settled. DS still has a dummy for sleeping and we got around it by saying he couldn't have dummy until he was tucked in to bed. Maybe your LO has something similar?

Occasionally we have a hiccough so DP stays with him and I "have to go to help Nanny" but promise to come back and read him stories once he is in his bed. He's always in bed within five minutes- he likes my stories!

It's new and exciting. It will pass! Keep your normal routine.