Ridiculously sleep deprived with naughty 2 year old - help!

[CanIBeABetterMummy]

can anyone offer advise??
I have a girl of 4 who has always slept well, and a boy of 2 1/2 who has only ever slept through about 9 times in his life! He wakes 2-5 times a night, always in a panic and automatically gets out of bed (left the cot 6 months ago as was climbing out) and comes screaming upstairs to me crying in a state. I believe it is crying for attention, like he has withdrawal symptoms from me if he doesn't have his 'Mummy fix' - as soon as i pick him up he's fine and i think it's just attention he wants, but not sure. I put him back into bed and have tried a mixture of getting cross and threatening no playdates the next day etc, or threatening to close the door completely which he hates, or just stroking him and giving water. I am on my knees with exhaustion!! having broken sleep EVERY single night. any tips?? If i shut his bedroom door he climbs on his toys to reach the handle to open it. I have tried the occasional night of Phenergen to give me a break, but cannot do that reguarly. help!
p.s I have onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (doctor says) as a result of stress of this and lack of sleep so need to get this sorted! thanks girls...

That's a lovely and very sensible approach 'justmanaging'. We found school helped too. They're shattered! And maybe more independent...

I know exactly how you feel. My son is 2 and 2 months and has slept through a handful of times. We made the mistake of letting him sleep in with us when he was a few weeks old and have struggled ever since. We've seen experts and been to a sleep clinic and he still doesnt sleep and we end up giving in and letting him back in our bed just so we can all get some rest.

Except we dont - if he sleeps in with us, he wiggles and kicks so we end up battered and bruised as well as knackered.

We finally got him back into his own bed just before xmas and whenever he wakes up, we go in and put him back to bed without a word. This seemed to be working after a few days but almost three weeks later, he seems to be getting worse. Last night he was awake every hour. Its ridiculous. He can put himself to sleep at bedtime, he's been doing that for months, but he cannot get himself back to sleep if he wakes in the night. I have to take a deep breath before I go into him because I'm so angry - my rational side knows its not his fault but its hard to be rational at 4am when you've had 3 hours of broken sleep everynight for weeks.

Does anyone know how long it should take before he will sleep through? I though the rapid return would take a week at most but we're three weeks in and getting worse!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh - am glad to get that off my chest!!

All I want to add is that you are not alone at all OP - sleep deprivation is SO, SO, hard. I have a DS who is now 20 months and he has never ever slept (maybe 5 nights he's slept through!). Last month my parents came from overseas to stay so we gave them DS' bedroom and he came into our bed. After a few difficult nights we are actually getting some sleep!!! He seems to have relaxed into sharing our bed and if he wakes, he just has a little cry and moan and then reaches out to kiss me and then falls back asleep. My parents left last week and we have put an extra single bed alongside our bed so that we all have enough room to stretch out. It's working!!! I can't believe how good it feels to have a whole night of lying in bed - not completely uninterrupted as he's pretty wriggly, but so much better than the constant getting out of bed to put him back down. My son also full of unreasonable demands - really I think he just needs to be close. Only problem now is DC2 is due in a month or so.....oh god what are we going to do!!!!
Anyway, sorry for going on about my situation - hope that you manage to resolve yours somehow. Maybe going with the flow a bit (mattress in his room sounds good) If he knows that you are there beside him, can cuddle you if he wants then you can just happily ignore all the 'requests', keep quiet and let him settle himself back down. Good luck with it and I hope you get some sleep and some perspective on the whole thing.

Hi CanIBeABetterMummy. I know exactly how you feel - I have had only had about 10 uninterrupted nights over the past 4 yrs. How are things going now? Did you try any of the suggestions? Btw, some of those comments would have made me cry - when you are so sleep deprived you can be really sensitive. I wonder why some people post comments in a thread where they obviously have not experienced the topic! Nowt so queer as folk! Anyway, hope those comments didn't upset you - we are all just trying our best and looking for some useful advice.