20 month old night wakings

[Mags1993]

20 mo DS used to sleep through the night pretty reliably, from 7am to 6am. We transitioned him into a toddler bed 2 weeks ago as he was starting to climb out of the cot. He usually falls asleep in our arms after a story and then we place him into the toddler bed. He sleeps solidly until around 11pm and then wakes up screaming, and will not go back in the toddler bed once settled so we end up co-sleeping. Has anyone had the same issue? Don’t have an issue with co-sleeping but when it’s every night it’s quite hard as he is like a gazelle, changing position and accidentally kicking us, so we are not getting much sleep! Any advice appreciated. Is he just not ready for the toddler bed?

20 months is very, very early for a toddler bed. Everything I have read is that they don't have the impulse control needed until closer to 3 and it really screws up their sleep. But if you have a little monkey that has climbed out, you have no choice but to persevere.

You can buy some tall mesh bedrails off amazon that you can put around a normal bed and it's almost impossible for a 2 year old to climb out. I have one for when we cosleep (pretty rare now at 21 months fortunately) and I want to sneak out early to have a coffee in peace.

I sympathize with not loving cosleeping. It's very sweet for the first 1-2 hours when he snuggles against me but then closer to the morning he trashes around and kicks me relentlessly. It's such shit sleep for me.