Sleep advice for 2 y.o in a big bed

[onthefly]

I remember then one night, I really needed to get up and go to the loo.....so I told him, I was going to the toilet and I'd be back....he stayed quiet....waiting.....then I went back in there and he was asleep. After that for a few days I told him that I was off to the toilet and left him to go to sleep......now we say our ritual words....."Night, Night....sweet dreams....see you in the mooooorrrrrning....I loooovvveee Youuuuuu" and I walk away, he puts himself to sleep and I don't see him till the morning (unless there is something wrong)

I think Elizabeth Pantley suggests something like this to establish a pattern of always coming back, so they're reassured and eventually learn to drift off by themselves. I'm thinking of trying it soon as we are moving DS to a single bed. Will be interesting to see how it goes, as he's currently on a queen size mattress on the floor...

[lou76]

Thanks everyone for the words of advice. In true form, the last two nights haven't been too bad with the settling - due to being out and DS falling asleep in the car, and then today he wouldn't go down for a day sleep so he crashed straight after dinner!!

Waking during the night has been an issue though, and I have been attempting to use the "I'll be back" trick which actually worked in the early hours of this morning, so thank you MiniMax and Marcellus for suggesting this. Have also left his night light on too, which appeared to help somewhat.

Pish - we have been 'planting the seed' re: toilet training, but he's not yet ready. He has told us 'Poo' a couple of times when he has woken, so we have taken him to the toilet but he doesn't do anything, and I suspect he uses it as an excuse to get out of bed!! He sleeps with his fluffy 'Monkey' already, so he already has something to comfort himself with. I actually wonder if I should put something of mine next to his pillow so that he can 'smell me' but wonder if this will only create more problems when I am in hospital with bub no. 2.

Didispunk - I am sooo tempted to put up a gate but I'm going to leave that as my last resort if I can. Thanks for the suggestion though.

AndiE - I tried closing the door today (and holding the door handle so he couldn't open it )and talked to him through the door, telling him to go back to bed and giving him a count of 5 to go to bed before I came back in, but it didn't really have much effect on him. I did this a couple of times, giving him longer each time, but he just refused to go to sleep. I agree that sorting out the daytime sleeps will help with the nightime, it's just so frustrating that I'm the only one home most days to deal with it and as I desperately need a snooze myself I end up getting very cranky!!

Anyway, please keep the advice coming, it's good to see what others have done in similar situations.

Cheers, Lou.