2yr old DS takes ages to settle in new bed.. HELP!

[myflabberisgasted]

Our 2yr old DS has had a big boy bed since Friday.

1st night took two hours to settle, with lots of tears and shouting. My DH sat outside his room until he gave in and went to sleep. (doing rapid return no eye contact etc)

Last night took 20 minutes to settle, only got out about 5 times. So thought we were into something!

However tonight he is still awake after going to bed at 6.50, we're doing the rerun to bed, no er contact thing but he isn't having any of it! He must have been up about 100 times tonight and I'm not even kidding!!

Arghhh please help!
Any advice greatly appreciate or just tell me it's just a phase and will pass in the next few days!

if it cheers you up, I just came on here with exactly same sort of request for help but our problems are a lot worse than yours. (words 'rod' and 'own back' spring to mind as reasons for our situation...). My DD moved to a big bed 3 weeks ago yesterday (she is 2yrs and 5 weeks), but she also moved from our room where she was largely bf and co-sleeping, so it's not as if she spent all night every night in her cot. Then 2 weeks ago I stopped bf, partly because I was ready to and partly because I hoped it would help with sleep. When we get firm she goes into meltdown and it keeps our 5 yr old DS awake, so we then go for the 'keep it happy' approach, which in turn takes hours. She also wakes up in the night in complete meltdown as well, so I am trying to solve bedtime first then move on to during the night issues.

I am on here in search of other people in the same boat, but your situation sounds more amenable to being solved. Good luck anyway and obviously I am not the person to offer you advice but I'm sure you'll get some soon!

whenwillialeepagain it's nice to know I'm not alone but your situation sounds a lot worse!

I hope you manage to sort things out soon.

He eventually settled about 10.10pm last night and is awake now.
Just hope tonight is a better for both of us!

It's probably a bit daunting being in a new bed especially if it's been hyped up as a "big boy bed"

I'd sit in the room with him - you can do rapid return but he'll settle faster if you're there. Give loads of reassurance and cuddles at the start then less interaction (I used to cuddle after ds got out first, then just straight to bed after that). Then after a few nights he'll get used to it and should stop getting out (DS did and only started escaping after a year!). Then you can do gradually withdrawal to leave the room.

Thanks Iggly I will give that a try!