ds2 keeps waking at 3am, dont know how to break the cycle

[mosschops30]

Since me and dh came back from hols, ds2 (16 months) has woken up every night between 2.30am and 3.30am, he wont settle with his dummy or music, so we end up bringing him in with us, and he sleeps like a log immediately and we get a crap sleep.

Any ideas of how to get him back into a good sleeping pattern?
dh thinks one of us should sleep in his room next week so that we can be there as soon as he starts and maybe soothe him back to sleep to break the cycle of coming into our room

Please give me some advice, we are at the end of our tether

Mosschops could he be teething? ho

I shall tell you what I have recently done (17 nights ago), against ALL my instincts, and it tore at every fibre of my being. CC. I did it for one night only. It was the most horrendous night. And since then he has slept through til 5am with the odd blip.

But he never slept well beforehand, sounds like your DS did sleep ok before holiday?

There aren't twenty different ways of doing this. In order for him not to end up in your bed in the middle of the night, you need to stop bringing him into your bed.

When he wakes in the night, check that he isn't too hot, wet and/or with a full nappy, and by whatever means put him to sleep in his own bedroom. Pick up/put down, sing to him, rock him, give him a dummy or a bit of water (not milk).

It might be hard for a night or two, but he will soon get used to the new sleeping arrangements and stop expecting to be brought into your bed at 3 AM.

Last night was horrendous. He woke at 10pm then wouldnt settle, he came into our bed and still wouldnt settle, it was midnight when I put him in his cot and left him there.

He had a major tantrum, but dh said we just needed to sit it out until he wore himself out. Within 10 minutes he was fast asleep and slept through til this morning 7.30am

Im not sure this is controlled crying though, but i feel that if I keep going in, he just stays awake.

That is what I meant. Let's hope that is the end of it. If he wakes tonight, don't take him out of his room.

cote do I just leave him to cry again? Im sure we did that with ds1 (who is now a great sleeper) but I felt sooo guilty last night.
But it was lovely to sleep through with just me and dh in bed

You know your baby best. DD would get hysterical if we didn't go in to comfort her (then would leave when she calmed a bit), but DS got hysterical the more he saw us.

Whatever you do, don't take him into your bed. Try to comfort him and put him to sleep in his own bedroom.

another successful night went to bed at 7.30pm then woke screaming at 8.30. We lay him down, then again 15 minutes later, didnt need to go in again, he dropped off and didnt wake til 7.20 this morning.

I am hopeful we're on the road to recovery