Help - 2 yr old dd suddenly become scared of going into cot and started climbing/falling out

[bandbsmum]

My dd, age 2, has always been really great about putting down for her naps and at night. Naptime, usually just lay her in cot, turn on lullaby, and leave room. Sometimes have to go back once, and just say "go to sleep now" and off she goes. Nightime, we give her milk in room with lullaby playing then put her in cot and leave room and she's normally asleep within 5 mins. But things changed yesterday. Put her up for her nap as usual. She seems to go down straight away, but 10 mins later she started calling me. So went back up, and put lullaby on and walked out of room, but she started screaming. Went back in to settle her, and as I walked away again, she climbed/fell out of cot. Put her straight back in and went to walk out of room and she did the same. At that point I took her downstairs to discover she'd got a nosebleed . Then last night, she got very distressed when dh went to give her milk and put her to bed, so I did it, she got upset again when I put her into cot, but I thought as she sleeps in a sleeping bag at night there's no way she'll be able to climb out. How wrong was I. She waddled out of her bedroom door in her sleeping bag! So in the end I stood by her cot until she went to sleep (20 mins). Did the same when I put her up for her nap today, but this time it took 45 mins. Don't know what else to do. Used to use CC, which worked wonders, but that's going to be no use if she can climb out of the cot.

[Donbean]

Do you think its time for a big girl bed now then?

[bandbsmum]

Possibly? Don't want to spend 45 mins with her every time I want to get her to sleep.

[bandbsmum]

Bump?

[sunnysideup]

If this is only since yesterday, it could be that she is going down with something; sometimes feeling unwell can really bugger up their ability to settle happily. With ds we always find that he is just 'odd' for a couple of days before symptoms of a bug or whatever appear...I wouldn't make any sudden decisions about changing her from a cot to a bed just yet....ride it out for a while yet and see if she settles back to her old ways.....

[LoucheWoman]

agree w sunnyside up it could be a current 'issue' at which i could only guess (bound to be anything...blocked nose? wind? who knows... you'll have to get your detective head on or summat)
but i do think 2yo is a bit old for cot... onlyIMO of course

if she had a bed she could get out of if she wanted, she might not do...

and anyway, if shes climbing out, youre stuffed anyway; it has to go.

sympathy on the 45min thing....but heres my experience (anecdotal but at least its some input):
i put my 2 and 3 yo's to bed in beds in their own shared room, and we do same routine ev night... once story is read, light goes out, i sit there (holding/feeding 10mo who falls asleep in my arms) for about....10 mins tops, and they are asleep. it used to take longer, but eventually they learned that id sit there in the dark in silence till they were asleep, and now they dont faff, just do it.

hope that ramble was of any use at all

[LoucheWoman]

oh and the 2yo was a nightmare sleeper till we got a night nanny for 4 nights who basically did a kinder CC (stroked his back or something, i dunno, i had earplugs in!) and 'broke' his waking/bottle 5 times a night cycle at 15mo, and i put him into a bed...
he HATED the cot before that - was always trying to climb out, cried furiously till he was sick if ever left awake, could only get him to sleep in arms then put down...
thought hed be a nightmare in a bed - climbing out all the time - but there was seriously much less of that than i expected. and now none.

light at end of tunnel, girl

[bandbsmum]

Thanks for your help. Hope she's not coming down with something as the whole family have just got over 3 weeks of coughs and colds etc.! She may be teething I suppose, as she still hasn't got the 4 big back teeth yet. She just seems to be a changed child recently. She's always been very confident, happy and independent, but recently she's become very clingy to me, not wanting anyone else to do anything for her and wanting me to pick her up all the time, which is very draining! Took just 10-15 mins before she fell asleep for her nap today, so better than the 45 mins yesterday!

[cerys]

We have just had a similar experience with DS, who was 2 in October. It coincided with having windows replaced and he saw a man working in his bedroom - from that day, he wouldn't go into his cot without screaming. After a week we put him into a bed, and we also put him in with DD2 and gave DD1 his old bedroom, which is the smallest. We have a few nights of him coming out of his bed, because he can (!), but we just put him back without a fuss and last night he slept through.

He is in a small IKEA bed, and we have also put his old cot mattress in on the top, which he seems to like. He also won't have a duvet over him, so I have had to get some fleecy sleepsuits! I think we are getting there with him though.

Good luck!

[bandbsmum]

Thanks for all your words of support everyone. Think she may be either teething or coming down with something as she's very clingy and off of her food. But ordered a toddler bed from my littlewoods catalogue yesterday, and it's coming tomorrow. At least that should solve the problem of her hurting herself when she gets out of the cot, just hope she likes it and gets excited about sleeping in it!!

[bandbsmum]

Toddler bed delivered yesterday. She seems to love it, but still wants me in the room until she falls asleep. Giving her a couple of nights to get used to it, then Friday going to put a stair gate on her bedroom door and going to start CC again. Really dreading it, so wish me luck