Has anyone else been through this?

[user01082312345]

The last few nights, my 2.5 year old son has woken up crying out for me (he usually wakes up at least once during the night, so this is normal for him), but when I go to him, he pushes me away shouting that he doesn't want me, then he throws himself on the floor and won't let me touch him. My husband has to come in and pick him up, and then DS immediately changes his mind and wants me to take him. Is this normal behaviour..? My husband sometimes works night shifts, so I'm not sure what to do next time DS wakes up crying and refusing to let me comfort him.

Yes we had a spell of this with our daughter around 2ish. It coincided with the arrival of a new sibling so had put it down to that but speaking to friends sleep does seem to go a bit wonky at 2 generally speaking.

It probably lasted a couple of weeks - we did change a few things up from memory at the time but not sure if any actually helped or if it was just a phase.

We bought a gro clock so she could tell when she woke if it was 'night' or 'day' as it was winter and was still dark in the mornings so was perhaps confusing for her when she woke whether it was morning or night.

We decided my husband would be the only person to settle her finally at bed (we usually did stories and then left, but had a spell of someone having to stay and hold her hand til she fell asleep) and when she woke in the night. We also did a gradual retreat so stopped hand holding and just sat by her cot, then moving to door, then leaving room etc

We also made a big deal at bed of telling her we loved her and we would see her in the morning. This is possibly the new sibling bit but think there was a bit of separation anxiety going on and a bit more emotional reassurance at bed seemed to help.

It's horrible when it happened - one night while I was with my newborn my husband just had to sit on her floor and let her thrash it out screaming, keeping her safe and saying he was there for a cuddle when she kept alternately screaming for the other parent. It didn't really help if I went in anyway as she'd immediately call for the other. I think the gro clock bit helped as not sure if she was coming out of a deep sleep disoriented and not knowing whether it was still sleep time or not

Sounds like he’s just tired, grumpy that he’s woken up and doesn’t know what he wants or what to do with himself. I wouldn’t overthink it. Any idea why he’s waking? Time to drop his nap perhaps?