Sleeping Issue

anna&jl2011

My DS is 18 months old and never been a good sleeper.  Most of the time he is rocked to sleep(which i'm sure is part of the issue)  He's not attached to anything blanket, stuffed animal, pacifier, nothing.  For the last month or so, after about 30 mins in his crib he would wake up screaming. He's always hated his crib.  Screams everytime you put him it in.  So we converted his crib to a toddler bed about a week ago and same thing. Sleeps about 30 mins then wakes up and comes to our room.  So needless to say he's been in the bed with us majority of the night, which I didn't want to do. We have a night light in there and even tried a lamp. Also our bedtime routine is the same.   When it all comes down to it, he basically wants me.  He will sleep all night no probably in the bed with us.   I'm thankful he loves his Mommy but I would prefer him to sleep in his bed. Any suggestions?  Thanks in advance!  

anna&jl2011

He's actually slept in his crib majority of his life. He just wakes up a lot when he's in there.  I'm a very petite person and I've even slept in his crib with him so I didn't put him in the bed.  It's just been in the last month that I started putting him in the bed with us when he woke up.  

My mom keeps him and it's the same with nap time.  He sleeps like an hour on her couch and then wakes up.  If you lay down with him he will go back to sleep.  

ktpaladino

If you want to get away from bed sharing, you're going to have to do some sleep training. If you're not comfortable with CIO, there are other methods like the No Cry Sleep Solution, or Sleep Lady Shuffle. Sometimes you may think they "hate" their crib or bed, but it has less to do with that than the fact that they just know they can get away with getting up and getting attention whenever they want. They start to use you as a crutch to get themselves back to sleep, when in reality, every kid has the ability to learn how to do it themselves, even though it is easier for some than others.
This is kind of a repetition of what I said in another sleep training post, but it applies to your situation as well: We just did the Sleepeasy Solution with our 18 month old. We opted to gate him in his room and do CIO, but there is also another option of walking them back to their room and helping them get back in bed. This method can require a lot of patience, walking them back to bed 100 times if needed, which is why we opted to create the barrier with the gate. We had 3 horrific nights of screaming and falling asleep on the floor, but he eventually got the idea of how to crawl back in bed himself and put himself to sleep. The last week has been great...he's so much happier and well rested, as are we.
I try to use my mommy radar as best as possible. Now that he is trained there are still nights when he needs a little extra help getting to sleep because of one reason or another, and there is no problem with giving them extra cuddles and attention when they need it most, as long as you don't let it turn into a habitual problem that you're eventually going to have to spend a lot of time and energy correcting later.

GrantHenson

I would strongly suggest looking into the sleep sense solution.  It is a great balance and she considers the age of the child into the way that sleep training is done.  I believe that there is a validating and invalidating way to sleep train your children and as a long time nurse in the mental health area and behavioural modification her program sat with with me and worked well for my baby.

  Remember that a child will cry in protest to the change and it may not be anything to do with the crib.  I would suggest putting the crib back to being a crib and following the sleep sense program.  Sleep training will just be easier if you dont have to worry about him getting out of bed.

  I also would like to say that the rocking etc has become what your baby is attached to it is a sleep prop.  There is nothing wrong with this or with bed sharing if it is working for you and it sounds like it is not.  That means change and unfortunately some crying but both you and your baby will be more well rested after it.

  Good luck and hope that you and your lil one are getting better sleeps soon

anna&jl2011

Thanks for all the input.  I started looking into some sleep programs and did chose to try sleep sense solution.  Last night was the first night we did it. And it was pretty rough but hopefully it will get better.