What is going on with his sleep???

DS (who has just turned 1) had gotten into a pretty good pattern with his night sleeps. Once tired I could tuck him into his cot and 9 times out of 10 he would just drift off to sleep. He'd usually wake and have to be resettled a couple of times a night but no big deal.

Well for the last few weeks it has been a fight to get him to sleep. I put him in his cot and he goes ballistic. It ends up taking an hour or more of patting, rocking, stroking his head, and going in and resettling, to finally get him off to sleep. And now he is waking at least 5 times a night also. Some of the time I can resettle him quite quickly but there are usually one or 2 occasions where he is beside himself and it takes an hour or more to resettle him.

I don't know why he's started this. We haven't really been doing anything differently.

He's really tired and needs to sleep. And so do I! It's like having a newborn again.

We have also tried the Brauers sleep remedy but to no avail. I'm at my wits end.

Any suggestions please?

Mama Spice, has anything else changed? Like room temperature or lights shining in or even the PJ's you have dressed him in? I've read that babies who self settle often actually have a self settling tool (like rubbing the sides of the cot) and when they can't do that they don't know what else to do so they cry instead. It could so be anything..............is he still having a feed before bed? We give DD some play time after her milk (or while she's drinking it now she's having a sippy cup) and then give her warnings that we are going to put her to bed. I don't think she really understands but it does seem to work. GL - I hope it works out soon.

Hi StarangelK. No nothing about his night time routine has changed. And he still has a bottle just before bed. The only thing that I can think of that is different is he has self transitioned from 2 sleeps per day to one over the last 6 weeks or so. And when he'd first gone to only one day sleep he was so tired by night that he'd quite often fall asleep in my arms while having his bottle and I'd put him in the cot. I thought this may have been a trigger so I now make sure he doesnt fall asleep on me and that he's still awake when I put him in the cot. But it's like he is fighting sleep. Sometimes when I just can't settle him in his room I'll bring him out and cuddle him on the couch and when he is starting to drift off he will often start squeeling and trying to move. It's like he's trying his hardest not to go to sleep ITMS. I've thought that he probably does still needs two sleep a day but he just wont do it. And I don't get why once I finally get he to sleep he keeps rewaking so often now.

He is in his cot roaring as I type. I've been trying to settle him for the last hour. And he only had one half hour sleep all day he should be dead to the world.

Teething.
Illness.
Developmental leap.
Just hates the cot.
Some other random issue.

When dd went to One sleep I had to bring her bedtime forward by one hour. It was awful because now her dinner time is really early and we can't eat together but she really needed that extra sleep. Your d's sounds over tired to me so I would try bringing forward his bedtime. Just a suggestion.....it's so hard to hear them cry so big hugs

It certainly appears he is not a fan of the cot right now MadB. But he used to like it and he won't have a bar of co-sleeping. I don't think it's illness as most of the time as soon as I pick him up he stops crying. But we're off to the the GP tomorrow anyway so she can have a good look at him.

StarangelK, I do think being overtired is part of it. He went to bed an hour earlier than normal tonight actually (he was so buggered he fell asleep chilling out in his Swing). But an hour and a half later he was awake and screaming. Finally asleep again now, but I am fully expecting him to wake several more times.

Not sure if bub is still in your room, but we took one side of the cot off and had the cot up against our bed. Having one side open helped here. I think my LO felt too closed in in the cot.

That happened to my DS a few months ago and it was teething. I used to be able to put him to sleep in his cot and he would babble to himself and eventually fall asleep. He then became a nightmare and as soon as we left the living room after his nightly bottle he would scream as he knew we were going to his room. He then went back to his old self, but about 3 to 4 weeks ago he's started waking up around 10-11 pm looking for sympathy because he's getting his molars now. He ends up in our bed most times he does this, and as hard as I try to settle him back to sleep, he just won't and I'm too tired to fight him. I know it's only a phase and I just go with the flow. GL hun!