Won't stay in bed

[collinsca]

I have never had a problem with my two year old (27 months). She moved from her crib to a toddler bed at 18 months without any problems. She had no issues when her baby brother was born in April. She potty trained in two weeks when she was 25 months old. Now all of a sudden, she does not want to take a nap and does not want to go to bed at night. In two years we have never had a problem with her coming out of her room or not wanting to go to sleep. This is a child who sleeps 14 hours at night and four hours during the day! My husband and I have tried to repeatedly put her back in her room for over two hours with no luck. We feel stuck and defeated by our two year old and don't know why this sudden change. She cries and screams and refuses to go in her bed. She would rather sit on the floor than go in her bed but she doesn't stay in her room on the floor either. We have tried rewards for staying in bed, putting music on, and having me sit on the floor and creep out. None have worked.

Any ideas or anyone who has experienced this??? I would appreciate any help.

Thanks
Carly

[sjg10]

Won’t stay in bed – I’m going through the same thing.

Hi there, I have just read your message and I am sorry to say that I am going through the same thing.
Cemlyn is 2 (3 in dec) he used to be an angel going to bed. When he was a baby we were able to put him in to his cot and leave him in the room and he would go to sleep.

Both myself and my partner work full time and he goes to a childminder 3 days a week and my partners mother’s 2 days a week.
He seems happy enough when he gets home, will have some food and a bath. But as soon as he comes out the bath to put his pjamas on he will start saying “go to sleep in Mummy’s bed” I will normally take him downstairs for a cuddle and then take him to his room and put him in his bed. I can be sat by the bed for 40 mins and he will fall asleep but as soon as I move he will wake up, or if he doesn’t wake up then he will about half hour after I have left the room. We often hear him walking across the landing and sitting at the top of the stairs crying.
More often than not though we can’t get out of the room without him waking up and following me, I will put him back in his bed and kiss him on the head and say “ its time for sleepies” and he will go mental! Before now we have held the door handle so he can’t get out of his room and we will go back to bed and cry himself to sleep. But he works himself up terrible that way.

If we have got him to bed he comes in, in the middle of the night. Again, we will try putting him to bed and we have the same problem where he follows us, or he’ll lie on the floor next to our bed and go to sleep. 9 times out of 10 it will mean myself or my partner going to sleep in his bed and him in with one of us.

In the day I will ask him what’s wrong and he will say his teddies frighten him so we took them all out of his room, we have changed his room round, but since that it got worse. I am so worried now that I fear him going to stay at my families house. He’s fine leaving me in the day but come the night it is terrible! Really don’t know what to do.

If anyone has any ideas or anything please could you let me know. I was thinking about a reward chart but I really don’t think he will understand the concept or it work. My work is starting to suffer because I am so tired and find myself giving in just to be able to sleep myself.

Thanks
Sarah

[tiredmomof2]

Sadly, I do not have an answer, but am in the same situation of looking for one. Sorry.

I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter who has suddenly decided that she no longer wants to nap. In addition, she no longer wants to go to bed! At nap time she will pitch a tantrum like I've never experienced before. It will go on for 1 hour or and hour and 1/2 - sometimes she will end up falling asleep in her rocking chair, sometimes she wont. She has been doing the same at bed time and has been known to cry/talk in her bed until 11 pm. She just always says, I want mommy to rock me, or I want a drink of water, or I need to go pee pee, anything to delay going to bed. Whenever I ask her WHY she doesn't want to sleep, she just tells me "because I don't want to", no other hints of what's wrong.

She has also recently started getting up in the middle of the night, climbing out of her crib & coming in to our bed. I am not someone who has ever believed this is a good habit, but at this point, we all just need some SLEEP!!! In addition she is disturbing the sleep of her little brother who is 1 year old. He is a great sleeper, but can't help but be awakened by her screaming both at nap times and bed time. I'm at my wits end. My instincts tell me that she needs the afternoon nap, but whether she naps or not - her bed time situation remains horrific. I almost feel like the nap time trauma is more negative than letting her stay up, at least there would only be a crazy tantrum ONCE a day, at bed time. I feel like I am trying everything and often handling it the wrong way for sure, (ie; yelling at her to go to sleep) which is obviously not the way I want to handle it. I'm just so stressed!

If anyone has any input, I would love some thoughts or suggestions. We are switching to a toddler bed for safety reasons & will be purchasing a musical, soft light toy that she can push to play when she wakes up in the middle of the night, and my soothe her. I doubt she will choose using this over coming in to my bed, but it's one of the things I'm going to try. Ugh...

My doctor did suggest a sticker reward system, and at the end of the week if she gets so many stickers for staying in her bed or for no "going to bed tantrums" or whatever - it equals a toy of her choice from the dollar store. Haven't tried this yet either. Might help others though.

[louisel]

My 2 and a half year old son was a wonderful sleeper. From around 6 months old once he was moved to his own room, learn't to go to sleep all on his own. We would place him in his cot and leave the room and not have to return to him until morning at least 11 hours later. He would also have a nap at lunchtime lasting at least 2 hours. This week he learned to get out of his cot. As the clocks changed last week he is now waking at 5 am rather than 7am. This is still 1 hour earlier than before and then getting out of his cot. The first day he woke this early he woke up screaming and we went to get him. Since then he wakes and wants to get up. This morning i decided that this wasn't expectable and tried to return him to his cot. We then spent the next hour with him getting up and me putting him back over and over with him screaming all the time. In the end he settled to playing in his room with the door closed. Whats the best way to solve this quickly before it becomes a bad habit.
I think that moving him to a bed wont solve it but will at least make it safer. My husband just wants to cut his afternoon nap completely.
Any ideas

[tcheatwood]

Hi I am having a similar problem. My son has been through alot this year. I am in the army and currently deployed to Iraq. I have 3 children. All of them since birth have been really good sleepers, but lately my middle 2 year old son Haven will not sleep through the night. His mom does everything she can to help him with this problem, but nothing seems to work. He will wake up in the middle of the night and beat his head and hit everything he touches untill someone comes in to get him. Like I said before he has never had this problem. Is this just a phase that will eventually pass? I know it is doing a huge toll on my wife and with out me there do to deployment she does not get a break from this. Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you Travis

[Rmeehan]

Sounds like a few of us are going through the same issue...if only someone had a solution. My 3 year old son Jack has never slept in our bed and has transitioned into a twin bed just fine...but the past 3 nights have been hell. We've tried ignoring his whining and pleas (I have to go pee, I need a tissue, I don't want a tissue, etc...) and put him back in bed repeatedly for 1-2 hours, told him if he stayed in bed, we could go buy a book or go to an indoor playground, nothing has worked. Last night he did stay in bed from 9:15-3:30AM but then would not stay in bed and stayed up from then on. I don't know how he's not passing out during the day since he's been getting 3-4 hours less sleep each night. I get so stressed and am pregnant...I'm at my wits end. My husband has been really patient and dealing with this too.
Does anyone have any solutions other than giving in and having their kids in their bed? I