17m old refusing to go to sleep - please help!

[latrucha]

My 17m old DS usually goes to bed at the same time as his sister, has a story, gets popped in his cot, rolls over and goes to sleep.

Three nights ago he woke t around 12.30 and could or would not go to sleep again until 3.30. He screamed every time I took him to his bed. He fell asleep next to me watching tV on the sofa bd in the end. When I put him in his cot, he was hysterical so I took him back to bed.

He has had a couple of nights liek this in the past which I put down to teething.

For the past two bedtimes now he has becomecompletely hysterical at being put in his bed. LAst night he eventually fell asleep in DH's ams after crying for an hour with me trying to reassure him while in the cot.

Tonight, I tried to settle him in his cot. No dice. Tried bf him to sleep. No couddles/ No. He is now next to me hindering me from typing

CC does not work with him. He just gets more and more worked up. He's gone for well over an hour and I'm not prepared to do more.

He sleeps in teh same room as his sister.

He has had a bad cld recently but it didn't stop him sleeping. He has been waking up once a night fairly regularly in the last few weeks but just needed a pat to go to sleep.

What is up and what do I do?

Also posted on behaviour - sorry! Forgot about this section until reminded.

Everyone's F5ing Nickel's thread, aren't they?

Is he happy in the daytime? Could it be an ear infection, which is more painful lying down, especially if he had a bad cold recently?

Hmm. I think he's ok.

DH has just pointed out that he has had a week indoors through first his cough and then mine. He's a very active little boy, so now I think he might just need some exercise.

Possible?

He does seem to be scared though. Maybe I'm imagining it.

I'm going to come back tomorrow when nickel has had her baby. I'm convinced everyone is over there.

Well, we're here again. except this time he's not really going to sleep. I think it's probably teeth. I hope so He was in my bed after 12.30 last night and still not asleep now. I exercised him like a dog today and have given him all the pain relief medecine I can.

I really would appreciate some advice. I'm not the world's most patient mummy and much as I love him, this is getting a bit much. I want my bloody dinner.

Is it the cot? I mean he sleeps in your arms, in your bed, etc right? so it's not sleep itself?

Could he want to sleep in a bed? And by that I mean he doesn't really know what he wants but he doesn't want to be in the cot.
I moved DS1 into a bed at about this age as I wanted the cot for DS2 so it is possible.

Do you think he might be looking at his sister and wanting what she has?

M went through something like this as well, recently, LaT....we had a whole series of nights, for about 3 weeks, where she would scream absolutely blue murder at bedtime, and then even if she fell asleep would wake up between 9-12pm and proceed to scream on and off until about 3am :(

We just stuck at it....tried to combine cuddles and reassurance with insisting that she went back into her cot. She was definitely teething, and had a stinking cold, so I was fairly sympathetic, but there's a limit to what you can do after applying Vicks liberally and a bit of Bonjela if they let you (she doesnt!). At the point that she stopped screaming as soon as we picked her up, we started to get a bit cross

Anyway, it seems to have been a phase - she's back to going to sleep reasonably well.

Does it massively disturb DD when DS is shouting in the night? Can you leave him? Or is it worth bringing his cot into your room again until he's sleeping properly? I know that might feel like a backwards step, but maybe better than ending up in your bed every night?

Sorry can't help more.....I feel your pain!

JKS - I'm pretty sure it's teeth this time, but he does really want what S has. i'm not ogin to go there just yet I don;t think. If this problem gets worse, I might try it. I did manage to settle him tonight in his cot. Eventually.

Filly - interesting. He definitely is genuinely hysterical if I leave him to cry, even if I am sitting next to him. He is shaking and sobbing when I pick him up and clutching his little animals to him. It's awful. So, I've decided to do my best to settle him in his cot to keep the bedtime routine for him and S, then play it by ear in the night, which will essentially mean taking him into bed to feed him then trying to sneak him back and giving up if it doesn't work.

I feel that the less traumatic this is and the less iI try and 'fix it' the better. When he sleeps in bed with me I don;t cuddle him or touch him so it's not a tremendously exciting snuggly thing for him. Hopefully it'll just pass.

S can sleep through a certain amount, but I don't want her getting too disrupted. The less she knows about it the better. She didn't seem to notice he was on the other side of the bed when she came in for her cuddle this morning but it won't take her long to cotton on and then there will be trouble. I've decided to cross that bridge when I come to it.