Our 4.9yr old son has always been a fab sleeper - 12 hrs straight through from 8 months til 4yrs - then all of a sudden, he started having terrors and would eventually wake up in the night and need to come in with us. We let it go for a while, thinking he clearly needed the extra reassurance and things were changing considerably in his life - I went back to work (from home but he had a new childminder here), he started school, his Dad went away to work for a while,....so we let it go. But now, if he stays in his own bed he has horrible terrors and nightmares and gets really distressed about it. He shares with our dd (2.4yrs) so we often take him out to avoid waking her.
Much as I love him in bed, and know it's not forever, I get really patchy sleep as he insists on cuddling me to the point of asphyxia. This is a child who won't cuddle in the day, so again, we thought he just needed it more at night.
Half of me thinks, it's only a stage (albeit one which has lasted 6 months ) and we should go with it; the other half thinks we need to take him back to bed and tolerate the nightmares and terrors.
Has anyone else had experience of this and what did they do??? My need for sleep has prevented further action, but should I just be more hardcore??? Any help, much appreciated!
thanks