Sleep nightmare

[witch1]

Sorry but I'm back again. Pretty much same story as before (ie 5am poo and loads of screaming)but worse now. ds 2.5yo has started waking,multiple times in the night and will NOT go back to bed or sleep. When we are with him he is fine and chatty and happy when we go he lies sobbing,screaming and grief stricken at his door and he can (no exaggeration) keep it up for 2 hours at full volume. We have adjusted his food vis a vis the poo and cut his day time nap to 1 hour it was 2.5 hours. We are all falling apart from lack of sleep and I hate how much I feel angry with him. dh has agreed to back me up fully if I come up wiht a srategy but I think ds is too old for controlled crying or cold turkey leaving to shout all night and bl**dy manipulative to boot
Can any of you lovely people help suggest some ways to crack this as we are NOT COPING.

I have used CC at this sort of age. It is not easy (when is it ever?). I have used it for dd and ds and eventually got them back on track. I do symphathise, this must be awful for all of you. And getting your ds will be good for him as well as the rest of you. Keep that in your mind if you do try CC. I also found star charts good with dd, but not ds. Mind you, he got me up at 4.30, so perhaps I should be asking for advice rather than dishing it up!! But you do have my sympathy.

thanks hmb. What did you do and how long did it take. Did you just leave them to shout or did you go in and out with CC. My other childen we just left them but they never cried Or shouted for longer than 10 mins and wihthin 2 days were sleeping through. Whenever they lost the plot it was easy to get them on track again. I feel as if I've bred a monster here and he shocks me with his persistence.

I would always go in and settle and reasure. As soon as the crying stopped (fairly instant), I would tuck them up, say goodnight and exit. Wait 2 mins resettle etc exit, wait 4 mins re-settle, wait 6 minutes etc. And so on. Ds could, and did, sometimes go for an hour (!) and it took possible 4-5 days to get some real signs of improvement. He isn't a moster, and neither as you, but it does feel like it when you get no sleep. Oh, we used to have a cup of tea in bed when all this was going on. Somehow that helped us to get through it all!

if his sleeping at night has deteriorated since you cut down his nap, perhaps he does really need a bit more daytime sleep?

witch1 have replied also on the other thread and have just found this - sounds much worse than what I'm experiencing - at least my DS does go back to sleep fairly quickly, if not for long.

I haven't any advice but can really sympathise with the anger you describe. The middle of the night is such a terrible time to try to master your emotions when you're tired. I also hate that feeling of going to bed with no expectation of getting a decent night's sleep. I remember this feeling from when DS was a newborn and now it's coming back!

Could there be anything deeper bothering him, as you suspect?

Hope things improve for you soon.