Our 3 yo DS had recently begun a spell of much better sleep. He had a new room, a proper sized bed, a Thomas duvet he picked himself. He loved it and all was going well. He was looking forward to settling into it and then welcoming DS2 to share the room in a few months.
However, in the last month or so he has been suffering from nightmares - waking distressed several times a night, inconsolable. He can take a long time to settle back down only for it to all start again. Then when he wakes in the early morning, he now comes in to sleep with us. Not ideal as we have a 5 month old who I bf.
It's also begun to impact on his bedtime routine. He's always wanted us there to help him sleep but we had progressed to sitting silently on the sofa in his room, rather than holding his hand.
Now he just doesn't want to go to bed - and rather than dismiss this as naughty, I'm pretty sure it's because he doesn't want the nightmares.
Don't get me wrong - he's entirely capable of using these situations to his advantage - but at the moment he's a scared little boy.
I know nightmares are fairly common in 3 yo, so what techniques have you used to get through it?