3 year old suddenly waking more and more in the night.

[LordyPutts]

DS 3.5 has been a pretty good sleeper (since he started sleeping through, probably around 1yo).
In the past month or so he has started waking once or twice in the night. Just because he loves me so much and wants a cuddle. Admittedly to start with this was adorable and I let him jump in for a quick snuggle then popped him back to bed and everyone was happy.
He then started waking more and more, and then we sadly lost the cat.
He now blames his waking on being sad about the cat, and has reached a point where he is coming into our room every 90 minutes because he needs a cuddle.
(worth noting, he stays with Granny once a week and sleeps through at hers, also stayed with Grandma last weekend and slept perfectly.) However, this week it has been awful, nobody is getting much sleep and now we all have a cold.
I don’t think we can wholly blame this on the death of the cat because he was already waking in the night before that. And because he sleeps perfectly if he’s not at home.
Knackered and frustrated. Any tips?!?!

What worked quite well for me was using the old cot mattress to make a little bed on the floor next to mine. Say to him there'll be no more cuddles or talking in the night beacause it stops everyone sleeping, but if he wakes and feels sad and can come and get quietly into the little bed next to you so that he's close by. It satisfies that element of needing you whilst also being not that great so he might not bother unless he really feels the need. And even if he does come, it's far less disruptive to you.

You can also set a groclock to a time in the morning he can come in for a snuggle before getting up properly for the day. That might help him stay in his own bed - "if it's still.blue just go back.to sleep for a bit more until it's yellow. Then come for a big cuddle!"