10m old won't stay lying in cot at bedtime. Advice pls

[Mamababa77]

Hi mums. My 10 mth old used to go off to sleep at bedtime with no fuss, he'd go in his cot awake but sleepy & be asleep within 5 minutes. However since starting to crawl & pull himself up, this is what he now does in his cot at bedtime. He can be almost asleep when I put him in there but he flips himself over, crawls to the bar & stands up, wide awake. If I leave the room he cries. If I lie him down continuously he cries. I really don't know how to overcome this problem.

He doesn't sleep through either & I was about to start controlled crying but can this be done when baby keeps standing up in his cot?

Any advice gratefully received.

This is a difficult stage but it is only a stage. With both my boys I found the best thing to do was to put him down,walk away and sit on the floor/chair and read/mn/whatever. No eye contact, no communication unless the screams were really bad but I was still a reassuring presence in the room. They seemed to realise eventually that if mummy wasn't playing it was just easier to sit and play with teddy,then kneel down, then lie down, then finally just sleep.

It took about an hour the first time. Didn't take very long to get down to a few minutes, then creep out the door, then start by going out the door etc.

We have the exact same thing with 10mo DD. It is really annoying! Especially as we've worked really hard on her generally awful sleep in the last few months, just got to a decent place where we no longer dreaded bedtime, but now this... Rolling, sitting, standing, and head banging against the side of the cot for up to 40 minutes at a time. It's the same during night wakes.

I have been trying to lie her down every time she gets up but I'm like a yo yo... Sounds like I should just leave her to it?

Thanks for the advice, I'll try & persevere lying him down. I do tend to stay with him until he sleeps. Unfortunately he just screamed at the top of his voice tonight until he was hoarse! This is a horrible stage but I'm glad it is only a stage. Tough love time I think.

You are doing better than me. This phase has pushed me to giving dd a dummy that she didn't have before, most often putting her into the cot asleep, and co sleeping when those things don't work. Dd smashes her gums against the cot sides otherwise and really hurts herself.

All I care about now is that we are getting some sleep and she isn't hurting herself. I'll deal with the bad habits later.