separation anxiety after holiday

[thomassm]

desperately need help, my 2.5 yr old has mostly been a good sleeper but we have just come back from a 2 week holiday where he slept in a room with us for 2 weeks.  Since coming home he will go down ok when I put him to bed, (he now seems to like a night light on and the door open), but he always wakes at 10.30pm screaming and will not be settled without me ending up sleeping in there.

Last night I was going to be strong and even if it took all night of wi/wo I was gonna stick at it but his screaming got so bad as soon as I said 'night night sleepy time' that he woke up his 6 year old sister, who got really upset on hearing his cries.
 
All this went on until 1.30am when I had to sleep in his room again just for my daughters sanity.

Please please please can you give me some advice, I'm not sure how long I can go on like this for, tonight will be night 4 of little or no sleep.

By the way, I have got him up at 7am this morning, which means he has only had 6.5 hrs sleep and is totally shattered, but I thought that by doing this I could get him into a proper routine.

[sianie]

Hi there!

It is quite common for LO's sleep to get disrupted after a holiday & if he's been a good sleeper previously then it should be reasonably straight forward to get him back on track. 

Could you please post his current routine so we can take a look?

Is there anything else going on like teething etc that could also be causing the issues? The link below might also be helpful:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=62612.0

It sounds like you have been doing the right thing by trying WI/WO but for some LO's this can wind them up even more so possibly GW might be better for him? With the short nights he will definitely be OT which won't be helping the NW's.

[thomassm]

Aw thank you for your reply.  We have always done the EASY routine and I also did it with my daughter.  I think the wi/wo method is totally winding him up.

His routine goes something like this.

7am - wake up
then breakfast and milk

11.30 - lunch
12pm - 1.30pm nap

2pm - snack
5pm - supper

6pm - bath then milk
7.30pm - bedtime

Of course this has been all over the place for the past 2 weeks as we had a very busy time on vacation so he just slept in his stroller and he went to bed when we did.

He has always had a routine so I think that this has completely thrown him off track.

Can anyone give me some advice on gw?  I do have a bed in his room, so rather than taking him into our room and having him sleeping with us I have been laying next to his cot.

As long as I'm there he will go to sleep no problem but as soon as I move he hears me and if I try to leave he screams the place down.

He is also asking for his cousins and grandparents as they were on holidays with us at the same time.

[sianie]

Hopefully this will help:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=80750.0

With GW I would put him down as normal, use whatever sleepy phrase you use to let him know it's time to go to sleep, leave the room if he's calm or mantra crying. If his cries escalate/become distressed then go in, repeat your sleepy phrase & then sit in a chair/on the floor next to his cot (I usually sit with my back to the cot....the key is to minimise interaction), if he cries then re-assure him with your voice.

Looking at his routine, the things that stand out are that his AM is short for his age (5hrs), I do wonder whether once things have settled down i would think about pushing his nap later & either capping at an hour or doing a later BT.

It does sound like trying to re-establish his routine will be key to getting him back on track, I would try & stick to a similar time nap & BT to help his bodyclock re-adjust....this will take a few days but he'l get there! 

[thomassm]

so far hes been crying for 3 hours solid, climbing in and out of his cot and it doesn't matter if I'm in there he calls for Daddy and if Daddy is in there he calls out Mummy.  At this precise moment in time, I'm going a bit nuts after 4 days of no sleep.

[sianie]

How did things end up?

Can you talk me through how you handled him crying, what did you do?