Sleep at 20 months

[First Baby White]

Need help please with sleeping or lack of it.

My son is 20 months old and recently moved to a cot bed, the first couple of night he didn't settle straight away but was then fine. Fast forward a month and he is now waking several times a night and not going back to sleep, he will open his door and scream at his baby gate.
This has been going on for days, last night for example he woke at 10 and went back down at 12.30 and has been up screaming since 5 and is still screaming now on and off.

Before this he slept through fine, I have been trying to put him straight back into bed without eye contact or conversation etc as advised by health visitor and this goes on for hours, I have tried sitting with him but he just keeps getting out of bed, i can hold and cuddle him but as soon as I lay him back down to sleep he is screaming, I just don't know what else to do. I hate seeing him upset but he is exhausted.

I have a 7 year old who isn't getting much sleep because of it as well and I am 20 weeks pregnant hence the need to move him to a cot bed so he is ready to share a room with his big brother when baby comes along.

Does anyone have any magic tricks that I haven't heard of or tried x

 

[Ella1979]

I guess it could be a delayed reaction to moving beds? Sometimes babies/toddlers find suddenly not being enclosed in a bed a bit unsettling and 20 months is quite young. My son is in a cot bed but with the sides still on and he is 27 months old. If your son is going to be in the cot bed when your baby arrives, could you put the sides back on?

When our daughter got nightmares (not quite the same, but the same result - up, won't go back to sleep, screaming etc.), we started a new bedtime routine with a new book and we'd read the same book every single night. Seems ridiculously simple, but after a week of reading the same book (nice, quiet story) every single night, her nightmares stopped and she started to sleep through again.

The other thing is to make sure he's getting a good amount of daytime sleep as well, as they quickly become overtired and then sleeping becomes even more of a struggle. Does he nap well?

Hopefully some of the others will have some suggestions. You must be exhausted x

 

[First Baby White]

Thank you we have a strict bedtime routine but no story so will try that and see if it helps, thanks for the idea.

He has one sleep a day but that's a battle at the moment as well!

He will be in a bunk bed with his 7 year old brother when baby arrives which is why we are trying to get him used to a bed now x

 

[kumber]

We're looking at dropping the nap altogether, can you try this?

 

[Birdie]

Agree with kumber, the nap caused that sort of behaviour with my son. It totally depends on your son as to whether more or less daytime sleep will improve things.... Have you done any no nap days? Does it change anything?

 

[First Baby White]

We haven't ever had a day without nap so not sure if it makes a difference, I have started to restrict his nap time as they were getting longer but I will try not putting him down tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks for the advice x

 

[Cjj]

We haven't ever had a day without nap so not sure if it makes a difference, I have started to restrict his nap time as they were getting longer but I will try not putting him down tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks for the advice x

How did it work with no nap? I'm just thinking of dropping my little girl's one as she's fighting it!

 

[Smileygirl]

Dropping the nap wouldn't necessarily equate to more night time sleep... I read that if a child is overtired (which may happen if they drop their daytime nap too soon), they will probably fall into an exceptionally deep sleep at bedtime. However, as a consequence, they would be more prone to waking up early at around 5am, making for a very long day ahead especially without a nap! Daytime sleep promotes night time sleep! My advice would be to keep the nap (1.5 hours and awake before 2:30) and maybe get a bed guard or these dream tubes I've heard about to make him more secure in his bed.