Why does sleep suddenly go wrong? Is it the terrible two's?

[David]

My son Nathanael is two years old in a couple of weeks. He has never been the best of sleepers from the very beginning, however over the last couple of month's things have settled and he has been going through the night from 7.30 till 6.30. We have never had him in our bed, we have always persisted with his cot and have gradually weened him of any bottle dependency and he was putting himself to sleep.
However, last weekend Nathanael woke up and would not go back to sleep, he got himself so worked up that somehow he managed to fall over the side of the cot, thankfully he did not hurt himself. Since this night, he is not able to go to sleep he will scream and scream and he is obviously aware that his mother and I are near by, because of the anxiety of him falling from the cot again. It has become so bad the last few nights I  have ended up sleeping on his floor, which seems to calm him enough to go to sleep. We do not want this to become another routine we have to break, but do not feel that pick up put down will work, as he gets so upset. We think this is the onset of th terrible two's and he is testing boundaries and how far he can push us, what do you think?
Any opinions, advice, previous experience of similar behaviour will be gratefully received.

Kind Regards

David

[Lunasmum]

:)Hello David,
Something similar happend to us with Luna. She was the perfect sleeper until she reach 2! and then the night wakening started, it was difficult to get her to sleep and of course wanted to sleep in parents bed! ::)After posting my worries to BW I was recommended to use the mattress method, where you place a mattress/sleeping bag in his room and after 3/4 days depends on how he reacts, you gradually move the mattress towards the door until finally you make it make to your room! this way he gains confidence in sleeping alone whist knowing that you are close by.
I've found that most of the post concerning night wakening are generally between the ages of 2 & 3. I think that at this age they are more aware of their surroundings and can remember what has happened during their day at night time. so maybe something has shocked them, frighten them etc during the day and at night they start to have fears, night terrors & bad dreams.

I hope this has helped. Occasionally Luna is still wakening but this method has help me very much!
Good luck & keep us posted!

[Florencia]

Also, he might be scared for what happened when he fell (maybe he was having a bad dream and then the falling didn't help)... you might want to try the mattress method LunasMum has kindly explained to reassure him that you're there and it's ok to go to sleep and once he's confident on that he might stop waking and you can remove yourself from the room.

Yes it is true, they test limits and are more aware of things and have this AMAZING memory (they remember every word you say and when you said it) so you just keep reassuring him, setting limits with love. That is, we need to sleep in our beds, mommy and daddy are tired, here's teddy bear who'll take care of you at night... say it in the day time so he remembers during night time. You're not being soft by going to him and help him settle, you're teaching the boundarie that he sleeps inhis own bed and on your own terms. If you don't see a progress with the mattress method for a week, we could try the walk in/out method. BUt i think this whole commotion is due to him being afraid of falling off his crib again and you have to work on this,

DS jumped out of his crib on a night crissis and i talked to him a lot, told him that im always around and that babies are not supposed to climb out of their cribs, they need momy/daddy to take them out, they need to use their words and ask for out if they need. And showed him the sign for "out" of the crib. Now he makes the sign with the word too... it's just a matter of persistancy.

To answer your question, yes, sometimes the sleep is off for developmental reasons and the best thing to get them on track is consistency even though you have a couple of rough weeks when nothing seems to get better. It does, i promise.