WTF is he doing?

[Instaflan]

Toddler (20m) sometimes comes into bed with me if he wakes up in his cot. Normally he’ll just fall straight to sleep and have the occasional wriggle or get a bit unsettled but it’s quick to sort.

The past few nights have been torture. He wakes up 11.30, won’t settle in cot so I bring him to my bed. He then spends the next 2+ hours spinning around, kicking his legs around, or into me, hands and arms flinging all over, just generally being a pain in the arse. He’s not upset, he occasionally starts trying to talk to me or just general babbling.
At one point last night I put him back in his cot because I was getting so annoyed but it’s not long before he’s in tears so I end up bringing him back. He eventually fell asleep after over 2 hours of this but then woke up again 45 minutes later for another half hour. Then awake at 6 like normal.

He still naps for around 1.5 hours from early afternoon.

Im not the sort of person that copes well on little sleep and it’s turning me into a horrible mother.

Anyone else have experience of this? Was there anything that helped?

Start reducing nap time.

I never had my kids sleep in my bed even if they were ill one of us would sleep on a mattress in their room.

My DC had a dummy though as we were advised this was good for premature babies and breathing.

No advice but I can’t cope with little sleep too. It is torture!

There is a lot of language development happening around 20-24m. I remember it being particularly hell ish for sleep, exactly like this. Lots of spinning and movement. Their brains are doing so much learning and the processing all happens at night. Do you have a partner? Take turns sleeping elsewhere so you get a decent amount of sleep.