2yo waking up and wanting us

[Leosun]

My 2yo used to go down awake absolutely fine and sleep through with the odd blip for teething etc here and there. We moved house 2 months ago (he was 21 months) and seemed to have coincided with the 2 year sleep regression.
We’ve managed to crack bedtime (ish) he’ll go to sleep quickly as long as one of us stays 😫 but he’s waking habitually at 11 and 4ish. I’ve taken to getting in bed with him to get sleep but think I’m rejnforcing the waking.
I thought this was a phase and reassurance would make it better. But still here... any ideas on how we can get back on track?

He's in a bed? He's very young for a bed and will lack the emotional regulation to stay in bed when he can get up. Or will just stay an shout when he feels "exposed" (The cot gives a protected feeling).

Yeh he’s in a bed because he’s massive and outgrew his ‘mini cot’ when he was 1😫 lesson learnt by a gigantic cot when your kids on the 98th percentile haha

I had a similar chunk - she was 91st centile. A cotbed sized cot was great, plus changed into a cot when older.

So I take it you don't think you could reintroduce a cot? While he will battle against it initially, it would be my best advice for longer term better sleep (said as a sleep consultant, and a Mum of 4).

If he's in a bed, I think you may need to stay with him through this phase, to help him regulate his emotions.

An alternate might be to buy a cotbed and remove one side off it and bring it next to your bed (It's called a sidecar cot). It gets him used to sleeping independently in his own space, but with you there for reassurance.

The final option is the tough love one. Keep returning him back to bed repeatedly, over and over and over again. It may take a bazillion returns initially. While you'll get no judgement from me on this one, it wouldn't be what id want to see happening. He's calling for you not due to bad habits, but because he doesn't have the emotional skills to deal with sleeping in a big bed, so needs your reassurance.

Thank you @FATEdestiny. I agree I don’t want him to feel abandoned, I’d rather ‘inconvenience’ myself and meet all his needs. Feeling guilty that we put him in a bigger bed now but so many people said their toddlers slept better with more space. So hard 😫