Please help with my ds 2.3

[BusyBee86]

My ds from 6months has never been able to fall asleep alone. I made the biggest mistake of letting cuddling him to sleep and him playing with my hair! So now every night I have to lay with him in his bed so he can play with my hair until he falls asleep.
It also got to the point about 6months ago that he would not want to lay down and go to bed so I made another made another mistake of putting a DVD on for him to go to sleep!
It was good for a while as he would go to sleep without me in the room, would fall asleep watching DVD. But none he won't sleep with out me laying with him again!

Anyway, I'm now pregnant again and really need to get this sorted ASAP as I will really struggle when the baby arrives, and also will find it very difficult laying with him with a big bump! I'm only 7weeks ATM though.

I feel so awful for ds though because it's all he has been used to, it's not his fault. It's mine for letting him fall asleep with me. Please if anyone has any suggestions of what i can do it will be very much appreciated.

Sorry for all the spelling mistakes...on my phone

We solved a similar problem by g r a d u a l l y weaning him off it. Maybe start by still lying with him, but cutting out the hair-playing? Then you sit in the bed, while he lies next to you. Then you sit in a chair, with him in the bed. Etc etc - ytou get the picture. As baby's not due for a while, you can hopefully get it sorted without too many tantrums...

Thank you. Have tried gradual withdrawal but I guess not well enough. When I try and stop the playing with hair he get really angry and frustrated. And screams and crys until I let him so I just give in

Unfortunately I think a bit of tough love may be required, if you want to put an end to this now. It will be hard to hear him cry but if you can remain consistent in your approach he will soon get the message. You could still do GW rather than leaving him to CIO, but be firm with your boundaries so he knows the hair is off limits.

HTH.x

Oh one other thing - is he still napping? what does his daytime routine look like? How long does it take him to fall asleep at bedtime? Just incase this is a symptom of a routine issue eg not tired enough at bedtime.

Yes I think it has finally got to the point where I need to be firm. It's just heartbreaking hearing him cry and getting so upset.
I have noticed recently that if he has no sleep in the day he does go to bed a lot earlier and faster than when he has a nap. But he does struggle some days when he doesn't have a nap.
Although, he still wakes up lots through the night(nap or no nap) and ends up joining us in bed!