XP: DS terrified of sleeping alone...?

kreeper611

We've had a good (great) sleeper.  He puts himself to bed, sleeps all night, takes pretty good naps.  Last week we visited the ILs and he freaked out.  The first night, he screamed for an hour, begging us to sleep on the floor beside the PNP.  I assumed he was overtired/overstimulated and let it go.  He woke up a few times that night also, but I didn't think too much of it.  However the rest of the trip was the same - refusing to sleep, begging us to sleep with him.

We came home NYE and figured out he is scared of the firework noise.  He ended up sleeping with us that night after he got out of bed and came to our room for the first time.  Sunday & Monday for nap I let him fall asleep on the sofa with us, after fighting for a good half hour.  Last night we tried our normal routine and he practically climbed over DH and I to get to our room.  He wasn't stalling, he was terrified, in a panic, freaking out.  I felt so bad that he was so scared, just begging us to let him stay in our room, or us sleep on the floor.  We finally caved and DH laid on the floor for 10 min.

Is this a phase, or should I try harder to figure out what happened?  We did move his bed last week to a different wall, so I'm going to move it back today.  I really don't want to start a habit of laying down with him, but I hate letting him CIO when he is so scared.  If he were just being a toddler, wanting to stay awake, I wouldn't have an issue.  We've also spent a lot of time asking him what he's scared of, and talking about how his room isn't scary, but when we ask he shuts down. 

RosesRRed

I would say it was because of the change in environment and routine during the holidays. Kyle is doing the same thing right now and I think it is because we put him down at different homes during the holiday season and he needs the structure of going to bed in the same place every night. I hope that everything is back to normal in a week or so. Otherwise we are going to be very tired parents.

LisaK2b

I think that he got a taste of what he feels like having his mom and dad sleep with him and so now he's kind of "use" to the idea and likes it a lot better than being on his own. 

However...I don't know if it's also an age thing too, because although Ally was never a good sleeper, she started only waking up 1-2 times a night for a few months (which is GREAT for us).  But for the past week, it's been horrible and she wakes up at least 5 times a night wanting us to sit by her bed. All she wants is for us to sit there and then she falls back to sleep.  But it's exhausting.  So it could also be separation anxiety at this age.