Sleeping question- help!!!

[lauradc]

I'm new on here and desparate! My 2 1/2 year old son used to sleep all night with no problem and now is a mess. He mostly won't go to sleep unless he can see me in the doorway. Then he wakes up at night and won't stop crying until I either sleep on the floor in his room with him or he sleeps in our bed. Sometimes I can just go in his room and tell him "mommy is here, go back to sleep" and that works but not always...I am at a loss- I have tried to think of everything I can. It's been about 3+ weeks of this. I put another night light in his room and i leave the hall light on for him. I put a picture of mommy and daddy on the wall next to his crib so he can see us. He already sleeps with a lovey every night and i started putting soothing music on when he falls asleep. He has always slept with a sound machine on too with spring rain sounds. He gets speech therapy so he is not talking enough for me to just ask him what is wrong. We have 2 homes and are in the process of packing up this home to move into our new home and I wondered if he might be affected by that...who knows????? Any advice- thank you!!!

[ra11en]

He's still in a crib? I can only offer my own experience of course, but I hope it helps! My DD is 26mo and started going through the same thing about 3 months ago. It was so frustrating because she has always been a great sleeper, in her own room/crib without our help. It had gotten so bad that we finally broke down and allowed her to sleep in our bed with us a few night out of every week, something she had NEVER been allowed to do before.

I turned her crib into a daybed hoping that would help, but it just got worse. Of course, she fell off a few times and I'm sure that ruined it for her. We were at our wits end - she would sleep wonderfully in our bed!! Finally, we broke down and got her a real bed - twin sized, and added one of those toddler bed rails to keep her from falling off it. That was about 2 weeks ago, and we haven't had a problem since the very first night. From up screaming every night to sleeping like a champ once again. We figure its either she needed more room since she is a real mover/shaker in her sleep and the crib was very confining (even as a daybed) or the crib was just too uncomfortable. Those crib mattresses are extremely firm for obvious reasons.

We had to change our routine a smidge - we used to rock in a rocking chair with her during story time before putting her in her crib/daybed when drowsy, but now I just lay on the bed with her to read and leave when she starts to doze. It is actually much easier now. Of course, we had to go through the whole "How do I keep her in her room" and all that not so fun stuff, but it made all the difference!

[lauradc]

Thank you so much ra11en! I was sort of wondering about the bed idea...we were holding off till we get in our new house which should be about a month and then we'll buy him a new bedroom set with a twin or full bed I think...we've tried putting his crib mattress on the floor and also a sleeping bag but keeping him in the room is definitely a challenge and so that didn't work out...thanks again for your idea!

[ra11en]

Best of luck and congrats on the new house. Isn't moving fun (NOT!)?

I was dreading the move to a real bed. We ended up putting a safety cover on the door knob to keep her in her room. Obviously we didn't just close the door and forget about her, we would go in when she would cry or wake up when needed, but it kept her from getting in the habit of wandering the house at night. When we moved her to a twin bed, she stopped getting mad about not being able to leave her room. She actually knocks on her bedroom door to let me know she's awake and then goes about playing with her toys on her bed. It is so adorable!! A few of my friends used baby gates to keep them in the room, but our little houdini thwarted our attempts to use a gate so we had to go with the knob cover.

I would probably make the move to a new bed before making the move to a new house. I would bet he's going to be disrupted moving into a new house, and its usually best not to make too many big changes at once even though it would make more sense to do them at the same time. And, if he takes well to the new bed, when you move into the new house the bed will be a familliar comforter for him.

Best of luck!!

[craftyashley]

Thank you, Ra11en! I have been terrified of putting the twins into a big girl bed. (this meaning I have to separate them) But I'm hoping my girls will be just like yours and love it.
They just barely turned two- what age did you make the switch?

[ra11en]

I was dreading the move to the big girl bed. DD never tried to climb out of her crib, and always slept great, so I kept pushing it off.

My DD turned 2 in October, and we changed her crib into a daybed at the beginning of December. The first few nights were okay, but then she started falling out at night. After the third falling out, she hated it and the trouble started. I'm so glad the move to the twin bed worked out, I was worried she would hate that too! My mom moved my twin sister and I into a big girl bed together. I know my DD has enough room for another if she was a twin. Maybe you can move them together to get them used to it?

Good luck crafty!!