Any advise for 18 month old sleeping?

somegem

Hi, I am a regular lurker on this board & as I know lots of you are parents I thought I may ask for some advise please.

My 18month old DS is not sleeping well, he has a dummy and we have always had to go into him to retreive it in the night if he loses it etc..

About 3 weeks ago though he started not settling again after us going in & finding his dummy for him, basically he would start screaming & screaming every time we left him.
This started at about between 3-4am, but then got earlier & earlier starting at about 1am and then never really settling all night.

I tried leaving him for a few minutes inbetween going in & laying him back down but he worked out how to throw himself out of the cot he has done this twice - landing on his head !!

I am not prepared to let him do this again - its just too dangerous, so we are now taking it in turns to sleep on his bedroom floor (on a mattress) he is still waking a lot - maybe every hour to 2 hours but if we say shhhh he settles again.

Any advise please? just so tired of being tired if you know what I mean....

I think he'll probably grow out of it (my DD now usually sleeps well)

Thanks.

MariaKaria

Sorry to hear about the problems, its never easy with little ones!
Is it possible to move his cot into your room for a while?, I think he would probably settle into a good routine if he knows you're close by, give it a few weeks and he has settled you could probably move him back into his own room without any trouble.
I'm not a believer in leaving babies to cry, especially in your case where he's thrown himself out of his cot babies are allowed to behave like babies, I know having him in your room isn't ideal for you but it won't last forever and as a parent we do what we have to do....he will get over it eventually, its not worth distressing him and you being driven insane with fatigue!, he is only 18 months old.

go_cat

You could try controlled crying and persevere with

You could put blankets, duvets etc on the floor to soften any fall

You could out him in a baby sleeping bag / gro bag which will limit the amount of climb ability

You could even put him into bed with a stairgate on his door

at the minute unfortunately you are doing exactly what he wants ... children are far too manipulative

good luck

somegem

Thankyou both for your replies...

MariaKaria - I must admit I hadn't thought about moving him back into our room, tbh he was quite late moving into his own room (late compared to my DD anyway) he was about 10months old as we were having major building work going on it the house and he didn't have a room - maybe thats why he wants us nearby?

Gocat - I have ran all these ideas around & around in my head for the past few weeks, but I just feel that I don't see how letting him cry & get so upset is good for him - I am probably just far too soft I know...
Last week I decided enough was enough and I was going to take his cot down, turn it into a bed (is a cotbed) and put a gate on his door, needless to say i didn't - i just feel he is far too young to go into a bed.

I appreciate your replies.....

FattyBettyBoo

MY DD used to wake up losing her dummy out of the cot, so I got a cot protection net (for insects or cats) turned it upside down and cut holes for the legs. As a result the dummies would be saved from falling out of the cot by the net and DD could get it and shove it back in without really waking up! It made such a difference.

Kimberley82

brandy works a treat

somegem

for me.... I wouldn't hear him then

go_cat

i tried controlled crying as a last resort when DS was a similar age - i remember sitting outside his room crying as it was awful hearing him crying but after two nights it worked so the short term pain was worth it

Don't forget he is only crying to get you to come in to get mummys attention as soon as they realise it is not working they stop

Kimberley82

somegem wrote: »

for me.... I wouldn't hear him then

no the child

somegem

Gocat - how did you do it ? how long before going into him ?

I was kind of doing this with him, leaving him for about 4 mins inbetween & going in laying him down - no speaking / cuddling etc..
He was getting himself in a right state & this was when he flung himself out of the cot (still in sleeping bag)
I just can't let him do this though as even with a soft landing, i.e. mattress underneath he could still land funny and injure himself - not prepared to take the risk.

I guess I know the answer, I either put him in a bed with gate on the door & let him cry & scream or I keep sleeping in his room until he eventually sleeps through.
I mentioned to DH about us putting the cot back with us but as he rightly said - we both work shifts so one of us is always up just after 5am - we'd be disturbing him then.

Teenie_D

If he is getting out of his cot I would personally get him into his own bed. Our DD was in a big bed at 18 months and it was fine (although the reason for it was different). You need to think long term and you sleeping in his room or him sleeping in yours isn't really the answer IMO and it might take a few nights of screaming and not much sleep but in the long run it will be the best thing for everyone all round. We had to do this briefly with dd and it took 1 night of hell and the second night a few hours and by night 3 she realised we weren't going to pander to her and she got the message. It was hard going but very very worth it.

We got one of those things that attatch to the dummy and your babies clothes, we attached it to DD's grobag and she would find her dummy herself and put it back in.