2 year old sleeping issue

cruais

Frustrated mam here hoping to find some help.

Our son is 2 and 3 months. He was a fantastic sleeper from the moment he was born. Now not so much.

He began to fight going into his cot and tried to leave him there and walk away, however he would jump out of his cot and open his door and jump his baby gate to get into our bedroom.

We changed his cot into a toddler bed and bought his favourite character bedding in the hope that it would be some incentive to get into bed.

We play relaxing music and one of us lies on the floor beside him until he dozes off. This worked for one night and since then he plays in the bed, laughing away etc.

We are very firm with him, telling him if he doesn't lie down and sleep we are leaving the room etc and when he hears this he dives down onto bed to try sleep but it just doesn't happen.

If we do get him asleep it's for 2 hours and he is up crying etc.

Any advice or gin?

s4uv3

Lie down and sleep or I'll walk out and leave you alone?
I wouldn't sleep either if I heard this, and I'm 35

cruais

s4uv3 wrote: »

Lie down and sleep or I'll walk out and leave you alone?
I wouldn't sleep either if I heard this, and I'm 35

Am constantly saying this and when he hears that he literally dives straight down and is silent, then about 20 secs letter he is full of chat and the process starts all over again.

When I don't answer him, He tips me on the head to see if I'm awake

bp

Its a awful terrible leap. We are out of it now but it lasted about 6 weeks. Once it ended we saw a huge behaviour change (more words, maturity etc) and sleeping better

shesty

God their sleep goes haywire around 2. They kind of have to learn all over again how to go to sleep.

All you can do is be consistent.Back into bed every time.I wouldn't actually stay in the room with him.Christmas holidays coming, might be a good time to start.Pick a day, and explain to him -tonight you are going to wash teeth, do pjs (whatever way you do it), and get into your bed for sleep.I am going to stay upstairs and do some work (that's how I frame it with my mine, too complicated to explain otherwise!!) ,and stay upstairs til you go to sleep, but I will not be in your room with you.
End of conversation.
And do that.Can you potter on the landing or in other rooms a bit til he drops off?You will have to keep bringing him back to his bed though.If he's chatting and laughing, let him.Once he's in or on the bed, that's enough (small steps!!!)But back to bed everytime, no big explanations or anything, just bedtime, time for sleep now.
We got a groclock to help our older understand morning when she was two (she was a very early riser) and it's been great.It could be something to consider as a tool to help you, once the sun is asleep he must stay in bed.You still have to enforce it obviously but it's a useful visual aid.
It won't last forever but be consistent and he'll come out the other side just fine :-)

franzilein

It's perfectly normal. Would you consider allowing him to sleep in your bed? Sometimes it solves all the problems. Maybe bedtime is too early for him as well. If he doesn't have to get up early in the morning, I'd try to let him stay up an hour later and see if that helps. No screen time for at least an hour before you want him to go to sleep. But most importantly: I would definitely recommend to stop threatening him ("If you don't go to sleep now..." Etc.) as this will not help but scare him. And a child that is scared of being left alone will have even more trouble going to sleep.

TheQuietFella

Read a book with the child for a while in the bed and that should relax them before they nod off! What do parents really expect from children as they grow and develop, even at two!