My 10 mo son has always had trouble going off to sleep, day or night but things seem to be getting worse recently. Today he started crying just as I was taking him up the stairs to his nursery and I'm worried he's starting to get a fear of his room/cot. He has two daytime naps (10am and 2.30pm ish) used to be quite long but recently only 30 mins each. Over the past week or so it has become almost impossible to get him to fall asleep in his cot as he becomes so hysterical - sometimes a lot of shh-patting will help but others times I am forced to take him for a walk in his pram (which means I never have any time to rest do things around the house!)
Night times are better but bedtime has always been a struggle with lots of crying. He does however sleep through, for which I am of course very thankful.
We have a bedtime routine and he has a dark room without too much stimulation. He is on the cusp of learning to crawl and I wonder whether this may be contributing somehow to the recent deterioration.
I suppose I had hoped that by 10 months he would be a bit better at self-settling and I don't really know what to try next as I wake up in the morning dreading the day as naptimes are so much of a battle.