Moved to 'big bed' and won't go to sleep!

[nikkibrown]

19 months old and after periods of being a nightmare sleeper up until 1, became a good sleeper. Recently began waking and climbing out of cot so decided to get him a tooddler bed with rail. Unfortunately he hates it and as soon as you put him down he springs back up screaming, crying and climbing out. We've spent the last few nights in his room with him sat next to his bed, stopping him from getting out etc. until he eventually screams himself to sleep. This ha staken about 3 hours each night. Once asleep he only sleeps for about 6 hours then jumps out again. Have thought about shutting the bedroom door and letting him stay in his room by himself, crying etc.,as he will definately jump out of his bed if left alone. Any advice would be hugely appreciated as I am 7 months pregnant, and can't cope with the lack of sleep and stress!!

hi
my ds is 14mths and was moved to toddler bed due to climbing out of cot and for the first week it was a nightmare but i used to shut his safety gate on room so that he was safe without feeling imprisoned if u know what i mean....after a week of this and me sitting by his bed he started to settle himself..he has now been in bed for 5/6 weeks and is fab he goes to bed at 8 and wakes at 7....it is just a case of perseveraing as at one point i did think about putting cot back together

I know it's very tiring but try to persevere with what you have been doing already. It will get easier and will gradually take less time for sleep to kick in. Everyone is different but I personally wouldn't close the door and leave the child to scream - this could cause worse problems and could make him frightened.

Thanks, its reassuring to know I'm not doing completely the wrong thing!Do you think staying in the room with him is making things worse?or should we be leaving him?(we have a stair gate so he can only wander the landing)

i didnt leave him nikki but would shut the gate and sit on landing so he could see me then when he was getting upset i would go and lay him in bed and pat his back then tell him to lie down and go to sleep...as i say after a week he was great and he now runs and gets into his bed himself and i dont have to close the gate on his room anymore just on the stairs....we only have gate on room to stop dogs getting in there

If it was me Nikki - I would just do things gradually. Time how long you stay in room, move and stand by the door for while so he can see you, wait outside the door until eventually he will go to sleep feeling that you are not very far away. I tried this technique with my two dds and it worked after a lot of patience. If you decide to do things this way I hope it works for you too. Best wishes with your new arrival to be!

Hi Nikkibrown, I've had a similar problem to you with my 27month dd. Since xmas she has been a real nightmare to go to sleep, and we were going to move her into a bed after xmas anyway because I too am having my 2nd baby in 8 weeks. Our dd seems to have also developed a fear of the dark and of being on her own at night, so now won't even sleep in her cot anymore and has worked out how to get out, so we've had to move her into the bed. My dh has to read her to sleep and leave a nightlamp on all night. She then seems to sleep until anywhere between 12 and 4 then wakes up and we have to try and get her back to bed which took my dh 2 hours this morning! Our problem is she now won't stay in the bed and sleep unless someone stays with her and in the early hours of the morning you don't have the patience! So I too am feeling very knackered before this baby has even arrived! Hopefully over the next few weeks my dd will get more and more used to the bed and stay in it longer and then we can work on how she learns to fall asleep on her own again! Honestly I thought this would be easy! Good luck to you!