Mum question: We have are having a tough time getting our 18month old son to sleep in the evenings. He has always been a good sleeper however over the last few months he has become unsettled at bed time (night only, day sleep is not effected). When we leave his room he starts to whinge, if we dont attend to him the whinging ramps up to crying and gradually becomes hysterical. The only thing that calms him is taking him out of his room. After giving him 15 mins to settle down we try putting him down for the second time and the tears begin again. This is happening every night and after a few hours of this cycle we end up putting him in the car (at 9:30pm) because we know he desperately needs sleep (he falls asleep in the car within a few mins). We know putting him in the car is not the solution however we are struggling to find a way to settle him in the house and without the car ride he would be up for another hour or two. He has never been an overly cuddly baby and physical styles of settling such as co-sleeping, cuddling and patting just seem to make him frustrated and more alert (as does sitting in his room either by his bed or near the door). Since birth, we have always attended to him when he cries as we dont feel comfortable with crying it out. In saying that, we have tried so many gentle methods to overcome this issue over the last few months and nothing seems to be working. The 9:30pm bedtimes are wearing us all down and I am finding it hard to figure out if he is not tired, is going through a growth spurt/stage or is just being a challenging toddler. Once asleep he sleeps through the night, wakes at 7am and sleeps in the day from 12-2 (he would sleep more however we have started waking him after 2 hours, concerned that too much sleep during the day is contributing to the problem at night). Any experience or advice would be very much appreciated.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 07:30:00 +0000
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