18 month sleep regression. Send. Help.

[CoreyBingham]

Mums net please help. 18 month old who has rarely gone to sleep after being put in his bed whilst sleepy but awake.

Is now going through 18 month sleep regression and will literally only sleep in our arms which is driving us to our wits end. He will not sleep in arms and be transferred to bed, he doesn’t respond to either me of my SO staying in his room holding hands patting him. Cuddly toys, muzzy etc. will not sleep on mattress in our room, anything we have tried is falling on deaf ears. He will fall asleep in arms and the second we move an inch. He is screaming to the point where he is getting too worked up for us to feel comfortable leaving him to cry it out.

We really need some suggestions other than what I have seen which is simply wait out this stage 😩 maybe we have failed in parenting up until this point hence why we are struggling so much. Or maybe there is a hidden trick. please send helppppp

One of my DDs was terrible at this age having previously been a really good sleeper. We limped through for about 4/5 months, splitting the night into shifts so we could each get a few hours unbroken sleep. Tried more naps, less naps, more food / supper, not eating too late. Sorry to say it made no difference.

What eventually helped was putting her in a toddler bed, although I’m not sure it that was just that she was ready developmentally, and could understand when we talked to her about staying in bed, but there was some excitement about getting into her big girl bed at night and improved her sleep no end.

Thankfully my 2nd DD bypassed this stage 😆