DS is 18 months old and apart from two really hellish sleep regressions has generally been an OK sleeper. He's recently gone into a toddler bed, a bit younger than I would have liked but he can hop out of the cot so didn't have much choice.
Going into the bed didn't seem to make a difference to going to sleep- I normally pop him in, he shouts 'BYE BYE' at me and that's that. For the last 10 nights or so though he's been screaming as soon as he's put in bed, sitting up holding his teddy and really upset.
He doesn't seem to want me to stay with him, which I initially tried to do and comfort him to sleep. He just screams at me even if I try to cuddle him. I've never really sat with him while he falls asleep before and he seems to find it impossible to settle with me there- the two nights we tried he cried for well over an hour.
I now pop him in and say something like 'I'll be back in a minute, I'm just going to do xyz' and go in and out. He still cries but only for about 5-10 minutes before suddenly stopping, lying down perfectly calmly and going to sleep. I feel terrible about leaving him to cry but I do feel that he's better off crying for 10 minutes than over an hour. Once he's down he sleeps through.
Has anyone been through this and did it resolve? I can't think what's caused it apart from maybe the heat or being unsettled because it's too hot to wear pyjamas so feels different? He's also suddenly really developing with his speech and I wonder if it's just really hard work. But I feel so bad that he gets so distressed at bedtime no matter what I do 