Two and a half year old suddenly refusing to go to sleep and waking in night

[RooTwo]

Well that says it all really! My two and a half year old DS has been a very good sleeper for ages (goes to bed very happily, falls asleep on his own - clutching a car or two - then sleeps till 7am without much of a peep) and then completely out of the blue now refuses to go to sleep at night. As soon as I leave the room he cries and calls my name and wants to be picked up, cuddled; and this goes on and on and on - he won't let me leave, and if I do he cries even more and climbs out of the cot.

Last night I went in and out, letting him cry for a minute or two, then going in to lie him down again, or putting him back in the cot when he got out. He eventually went to sleep, but only after about an hour and a half of this. He then does this in the night too - waking around 2 or so and refusing to settle, crying for me, climbing out of the cot. We have ended up taking him into bed with us which I know is disastrous but I am somewhat at my wits' end as to what to do - I cannot spend two hours in the middle of the night going in and out of his room and putting him back in his cot. I'm really worried too that he is going to hurt himself - I'm amazed and baffled that he is able to get out of his cot even in a grobag, and shuffle down the hall to find us.

What on earth do we do - it's so baffling that he is doing this. I think it must be something development-related - he is beginning (quite late) to talk a lot and gets quite frustrated and has tantrums in the day and is oddly more clingy to me than he used to be (cries when I leave him at nursery, which he has never done before). Has anyone else been through this - might this just stop, or might this just go on and on ...? Help ...

Anyone ...? I wonder about putting the mattress of his cot on to the floor in his room (prior to getting a bed - which I think we must do) and then putting a stair gate on the door, so that at least he is not throwing himself out of the cot all the time. Has anyone done this?

dd1 went through this at a similar age, there was a phase of about a month when I couldn't leave her alone at bedtime but had to stay in the room til she fell asleep, combined with much night -waking, and again I had to stay in the room while she went back to sleep.

There wasn't much I could do other than ride it out, she had been a very good sleeper previously and it was very unexpected. It did pass however (although there were recurrences from time to time later on, but never as bad)...I assumed it was some kind of extreme separation anxiety??

That's what I can't work out, CatIsSleepy, whether to ride it out and stay with him till he falls asleep each time (which is what he wants) in the hope that it will pass quickly, or whether to knock it on the head straight away (re-teach him how to go to sleep on his own by going in and out, reassuring) in case it is the beginning of a terrible sleep habit ...

I think I would regard it as a phase and not as a prelude to changing sleep habits completely. I can only go on dd1, but after 3 weeks or so of this, it suddenly seemed that she didn't need me to stay at bedtime any more, and the nights went back to normal(ish)-there had just been a period when she needed extra reassurance or something from me.

Tbh it seemed easier to just go with what she needed as the alternative (lots and lots of screaming) was too painful for all concerned. Getting up in the night is never fun (I was pg too at the time and especially disgruntled at all the disruption, also as she never wanted dh, only me damnit ) but hopefully it won't go on too long...

my son use to do the same, wake up in the middle of night cry scream and i couldn't bear it so gave up and he sleeps in my bed. Can't let him screammmm every night!it's a nightmare. and working in the morning is very hard.