Scared to sleep

N’s always been a good sleeper, even as a newborn he’d sleep to a regular routine (although in short stages), so whenever he’s woken or struggled to get to sleep there’s always been a good reason like illness.

But the last week has seen something totally strange to him – total shock to the system for us.  He’s not wanted to sleep at all.  Just lots of ‘no’s, lots of crying (more extreme than the old moaning version of crying that he used to do when settling himself), and chucking everything out of his bed.

OH reckons it’s because he was traumatised by seeing Father Christmas last week as that’s when it started.  He’s refused to sleep for naps and bedtime.  He just asks for more stories, more ‘chill’ time, to sit in the chair, lie on the bed etc.  The one night he did go to bed as normal was when I was going out.

On Friday night we were going out, so ended up leaving him screaming with Granny because OH had brought him back downstairs as he was crying in his cot, so he then didn’t want us to leave.  Of course, he was fine as soon as the door was shut!  Granny ended up having to pretend to sleep on the spare bed in his room while he stood and watched her for 45 minutes in his cot before eventually dropping himself.

Thankfully yesterday seemed to be a turning point and back to normal.  Just 2 seconds of crying as I left the room; there was silence as soon as I stepped onto the stairs.  And the same with today’s naptime.  It looks like he needs his bedtime moving back slightly (argh, to nearer 7.15 – oh no, less evening for us), and we’re having to leave on the upstairs hall light showing through his door.

I’m hoping that it was just a little blip and we’re back on sleeping track.  I had started thinking that maybe he didn’t like the being caged in, but luckily after yesterday trying to settle him on the big bed unsuccessfully, the cot seems to be ok again.  Phew.

Love it? Share it

Similar Posts

2 Comments

  1. I think its pretty comon for them to go through a spell of suddenly not liking to sleep! I hope it doens’t last to long for you it sounds like your getting back on the right track already 🙂 I think the only thing to do is to keep sticking to the routine like normal, although it is so upsetting hearing them cry, I used to sit by the side of mines cot until they fell off to sleep.. whenever they went through these sort of spells

    1. Definitely think it’s a phase. Hopefully a short one. I was telling him that I’d leave the light on, door open and would stand outside til he fell asleep but it was such violent screaming compared to what he used to do. It’s hard when they can’t tell you what they don’t like, isn’t it.

Comments are closed.