My Son's Sleep Has Gone to You Know Where

[caitlynevansmom]

My DS is 3 years and 5 months and has never been the best sleeper.  After months and months of work he was doing pretty well.  About 9 hours at night and a 2 to 3 hour nap during the day.  He had very few wake ups and stayed in his room until his wake-up clock switched from a yellow light to a green light.  Just over a month ago I decided to ditch the binky.  It was exclusive for naps and bedtime and it was starting to interfere with his allergies.  We went to Build-A-Bear and had it sewn inside, thinking he would attatch himself to the new toy instead of being "attatched" to the binky.  Huge mistake.  Within 3 days, no more naps.  Sleep interrupted every night.  Then, a few days after that, he refused to sleep at all.  Several hours later I broke and gave him a backup binky, deciding he could ditch it later, sleep is more important.  Next, he got sick with a bad cough that kept him up for hours at night.  Now he is attatched to me because I was with him as he was getting over his illness.  It's been about a month of no naps, a handful of hours of sleep for both of us.  He gets me from my room every time he wakes up.  I have sit in his room for 20 minutes or longer waiting for him to fall back to sleep.  Sometimes he ends up sleeping in my bed with me.  Something he has never done. I have done The Sleep Lady Shuffle with him and tried tips from The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers.  Nothing seems to be working.  Any tips or other books to check out will be welcome.  The only thing I don't want to do is sleep in the room with him.  I'm afraid it will be impossible to break him from that dependency. 

[nngmommy83]

Consistancy is the key here! Don't budge whatsoever on your set plan and eventually he will get it. If you budge (like with the binky) he knows to hold out for longer to get what he wants. keep putting him back in his own bed each and everytime he gets up. This is the only thing that worked with my DD