Where has my Beautiful Sleeping Child Gone?

Since birth, my boy has been an awesome sleeper and I know that I'm very lucky to have had things so easy in the area but just recently things around here at bed time have changed.

1 week ago, just after DS's 2nd birthday he is suddenly refusing to go to bed in his room. We have not changed our bedtime routine at all. He is happy knowing that it is bed time and goes through all the motions as he normally would until he sets foot into his bedroom and then it's just crazytime. He screams and cries and is virtually hysterical. I have know idea what is causing this behaviour. DS is an excellent talker but when I ask why he doesn't want to sleep in his own room he can't seem to tell me.

We have sat with him in his room and read him stories and talked etc until he finally falls asleep but then at 3 or 4am he's, for the first time ever, walking into our room and getting into bed with us. We would prefer this not to happen but I'm not sure what to do. Today he wouldn't even go into his room for a nap, which hasn't happened before so he is now sleeping on our couch. Can anyone offer me any suggestions. As I haven't experienced that type of behaviour from him before I'm really quite taken aback and it's very upsetting to watch.

Honey I'm in the same predicament.
A month after my daughter turned 2, she all of a sudden started waking at night and would come to our room. It started about 430am and got earlier and earlier to the point she refused to go in her room at all at bedtime, wanting to go straight into our bed.
She started saying she was 'scared', and I had no idea why.
Even to the point of not going into her room to play.
I ended up completely moving her to another room, setting it all up as a 'big girls' room, took a lot of settling to get her to stay on there, we played in her new room for days before I attempted her to sleep in there. And she has started waking having nightmares too.
I have no 2 due in less than ten weeks do I hope it's sorted before then!!
Good luck x

Murraycod, it's terrible isn't it? Something I forgot to mention earlier is the first night it happened DS had woken up at 3am in the morning screaming "Mummy, Mummy!!!" It scared me to death. I ran in there and he was shaking like a leaf. It's been since then that he has been refusing to go to bed. He doesn't say he is scared though. I'm not sure if I should just let him sleep in our bed and work things out for himself or if I should persist, persist, persist until I get my good sleeper back but I don't want to make things worse. It's so confusing as to what to do. I don't want to redo his room until closer to Christmas.

I hope that your little one gets things settled in the sleeping department before your next bub arrives xx

I'm going to say i think it's an age/stage/phase thing....my DD2 who turned 2 in Feb this year is doing the exact same thing!!. this was my child who I would zip up in her grobag, give a kiss and cuddle, nigh nighs light off and she would roll over and be asleep within less than 5 mins.

Fast forward to now, and whilst the routine hasn't changed, she is fine right up and until i turn the light out, then the screaming and tears start. She's fine if i sit in her room until she falls asleep but then she is up again by 2am so i just bring her into our room because i can't be bothered trying to resettle her. - I will say though that we don't cosleep in the "true" sense of the word. I don't have her in bed for the simple fact that I get less sleep when she's in with us because she likes to kick and do 360's in her sleep so i never really go to sleep because I usually cop a kick to the head, back face etc. so to make sure she feels safe and comforted, I set up a mini bed next to our bed where she happily sleeps until around 7-7.30am when we all get up for the day.

Could you try setting up a little bed next to yours, that way he's still close to you without actually being in your bed? - I only ever co-slept with my DD's when they were newborn and feeding every 2-4hrs - once they were stretching i moved them to their own cot and it was perfect for a while. Funnily enough both of them "regressed" just after turning 2.

Gahhhhh mine is doing it too

Glad to know I'm not the only one who's going through this. It sounds more and more like it's an age related issue. Hopefully this phase passes relatively quickly :)

Mine just won't go to bed full stop crys out for more like then after about 3 lots he sleeps but then wakes anywhere from 12-2am for more :(

I think I've had success tonight. We dimmed the lounge room lights after dinner for quiet time, as usual. Then at bedtime I told him I would lay beside him while he fell asleep. He fell asleep in about 10minutes without even a whimper. Now, how long will he stay asleep for?

Oh the poor little thing. It is such a sudden change and it sounds to me like he is genuinely upset/frightened about something. I think he just needs a bit more comfort for a while, if you have to lay with him every night until he sleeps then that's ok. When he's over it you can go back to the normal routine.

I find it's hard for little kids to answer 'why' questions. So if you want to find out what's upsetting him you could try asking another way. I might say...... 'I can see that you're really upset. You don't want to go to bed. You don't like sleeping in your room because...' and then wait for him to answer. That works with my 2 yr old.

My ds has also started waking in the night scared. The first night he was scared of shadows on the wall.

I think it's just a stage of fearfulness and separation anxiety. I cosleep full time so I haven't noticed any other behaviours.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice Heaven and I'll definitely keep that in mind. Last night he slept until 4.30am and then came into our bed. He stayed for an hour and then DP transferred him back to his own bed no problems. He slept until 6.30am and then got up to start his day. There is always something new to challenge us as parents isn't there :)

Hi Aussie,

Glad I found this as I was talking to my sister about this very issue today. We are having the exact same problem with DD. I put it down to a little growth spurt. But maybe it is just a developmental thing. This morning she was up at 4.30, so I brought her into our bed, she just laid there with her birdy (comforter teddy) until 6.30 which was a more respectable time to get out of bed. She also woke in the middle of the night a couple of weeks back, the first time she has woken in the night since she was 5 weeks old, and I gave her cuddles and sat next to her, my sister said that this lasted a couple of months with her DD. Arrgghhh! Every age has it's challenges doesn't it.