How to sleep train a 2.5 year old!!!

[november90]

I'm honestly at my wits end with my 2.5 year olds sleep, In his whole life I've had about a 3 month stint of him sleeping through. The past 6 months have been hell. He simply will not settle without me in the room. He's so loud and strong there's no way I can leave him to cry in his room, he would have such a meltdown and trash the room! (He is a lovely very sweet boy normally!!). I have to sit in the room with him until he drops off and then get up every time he wakes, which is normally 3 times every night then up at 6 :(
He's not in a cot anymore and has 1 morning nap a day. They days we've missed his nap his sleep has been even worse and he's woke up so distressed during the night!
I just don't know what to do. I did resort to crying it out when he was about 1.5 which gave me a nice 3 months of sleep, but I just simply cannot do that anymore. I am in the very early stages of pregnancy and I just don't know how I'll cope with two :( I just feel at such a loss, I don't know what to do :(

My LO is only 13 months so no words of wisdom to offer sadly but just want to say I'm also up at your stupid hour desperately wishing my DS would go to sleep!!!! Normally DH would have a turn but he's away with work 😥

I can't imagine doing it whilst pregnant though so full respect to you for that!

Why can't he sleep in your bed?

@Aw12345 oh my god it's so hard isn't it! My little boy woke up on the floor which really freaked him out and put him in a really bad mood so I've been up for 1.5 hours so far trying to get him to calm down! He's just drifted off... but without a cover on... do I dare put it on incase he wakes up or do I leave it and he'll wake up soon because he's not Cosey?! 🤦🏼‍♀️
How do you get your LO off?
I hope they both sort themselves out soon 😂 xx

@PatricksRum well he's never slept in our bed... he was in his crib in our room, then a cot in his own and now his cot bed. I personally wouldn't want to start that... but even if I did he wouldn't get in it! 😩

It just seems he wants you there to sleep.
So I would just put him in your bed.

Personally I wouldn't start co-sleeping now when you're pregnant if you've never done it before. It'll complicate things if he's still in your bed when the baby's here. My three year-old sleeps in my bed and she'd never get any sleep if I was getting up every hour with a baby. Plus it removes the option of having the baby in your bed when it's here (which a lot of mums end up doing in my experience but would be completely unsafe with a three year-old in the same bed). So I'd ride this period of bad sleep out and keep going to him in his bed. But you have my sympathy, OP! Disrupted sleep is shit.

Sticker chart worked really well for me with dd at that age

I sat in the doorway and kept putting our toddler back into bed. Took A LOT of patience for the first couple of days but now generally he goes to bed at 7 and stays there.

The night waking needs a quick reassure and then you leave. He doesn't need you then at all. He's using you as a sleep crutch but he's old enough to settle himself.

I wouldn't Co sleep with a baby on the way either.

Go in to show you're there, give a quick cuddle and reassurance, say you've got to go and do something and will be back in a minute. Leave the door open. Come back in one minute. Say you haven't finished and will he back again. Stay in bed. Go and make a bit of noise and say you'll he back. Ho back in 4 mins. Fo the same but leave it longer. He will get used to the idea you are still around and eventually go to sleep at first there is crying but its very short lived once they realise you're still going to be there. You do have to keep repeating at first but I think it works. Also giving a special toy. I also put one of those hliw in the dark stars on the wall next to the cor and said if you ever miss mummy at night touch the star and it's like holding my hand- magic!