At my wits end, please help!

[BlondeNymph]

So my ds recently turned 2 and sleep has been a MASSIVE problem since. This has been going on for around 5/6 weeks now...
Before, he napped perfectly, slept all night, even went to bed saying good night to us as we left him each night.
So, all of a sudden he started refusing to go to bed, screaming when we left the room and going insane even after we returned to comfort him. Then he figured out how to climb out of his cot. So this then became a thing at nap time too, which he also started to refuse. AND he started waking multiple times through the night and very early morning rises. So, on a bad day he would wake up at 4:45am...refuse to nap, his behaviour would be SO BAD then we would try to get him to bed early, which he would refuse and would eventually pass out in his cot around 9pm. Then the same thing would happen the next day. We're exhausted. I honestly don't enjoy my life at the minute as a result. He's so energetic that even now if he skips a nap he won't even sit down, he'll go around the house in a temper because he's so tired and he would hit us and take tantrums. So we've resorted to taking him in the car just to get him to nap, for our mental health. But this isn't always possible, he really needs his naps in his cot. For his nap today, I've just spent 2 full hours dealing with his jack in the box behaviour as he climbed out of the cot and i done the whole silent return to bed tactic. We've been trying this tactic for a week now at nap times and bedtimes and it literally goes on for hours and has only worked once at nap time. Please tell me this will get better.

(Side note: we tried him with taking the side of his cot bed and that was a big mistake, he wouldn't even sit in it long enough for us to even tuck him in and it resorted in a tantrum that lasted hours that night, so we put the side back on, so it's a cot again).

Also:

• He has black out blinds
• We've tried a nightlight, this makes no difference
• He has a nighttime routine, the same one he's had since he was around 4 months old

Please help an exhausted mama.

Well the two things I was thinking to say were, bed instead of cot and red nightlight! That and repeat the mantra, everything's a phase...

Put in a bed and put in a gate on his bedroom door that he can't climb over. That's what we did and it only took a few nights for her to get used to it.

This sounds like it's led by fear and anxiety. I would stay by the cot and comfort him, while continually lying him back down.

This looks like the thread for me!!
DS is 2 1/2 and since maybe august he's been absolutely terrible at sleeping.
He also learnt to climb out of his cot so we brought him a cot bed and because we can't put a stair gate in his door we've brought one of the long chain locks so he can see out but the gap isn't big enough for him to 'escape'!
He does go down ok but will wake up pretty much every hour and won't settle until you go in and sit with him. For the last 2 weeks it's been if we've dared to move from beside him and the floor creaks he's awake and crying again.
We are fed up and completely drained and hoping it's just a phase!!!

We just had the exact same situation (really good sleeper, sudden refusal to go to sleep / nap/ climbed out of cot). We tried lying next to the cot to settle him and stop him climbing out for a while, but he just got worse over time. Then we lowered the cot mattress onto the floor, and he couldn't climb out. We then had a few nights of sleep training (going in to reassure if crying for more than a few minutes), didn't cry for more than 10 mins in total and after 3 days not at all, happy sleeping again. Worked for naps too. Still woke early (5 - 5.30am) for another month, but just started sleeping later again in last week. Lasted 2 months in total, I'm sure will have similar blips in future too.

Also, forgot we started using a sleep training clock for early morning waking which resulted in him lying happily in cot when waking early, then just going back to sleep, then not waking early at all.