[w8ting4Thomas]

OK..here is the shortest version I can come up with. I am posting to you guys because I get great feedback and reassurance - DH and I are disagreeing about what could be causing this.

We took all of the kids to Gatlinburg New Years eve for 4 nights. Due to a mess with the hotel, we ended up having to have 2 different rooms, so one adult had to stay in the room with the older 3 and I stayed with Thomas. He will not sleep in the pack and play if you are in the room with him, so even though co-sleeping has never been great for us, that is what we did. This turned out to be for 4 nights.
Now that we are home (has been 8 nights now) I CANNOT get him to go down easily for a nap or bed. When we were in Gat., I kept him up until 9:15 bc I was having to go to bed with him. Normal bedtime was 8-8:30 dedending on how the day was. It used to be I could lay him in the crib at nap or bedtime and he would play for a few mins (could hear him on the monitor) but he RARELY cried. Now, it is nonstop crying. Last night I went to the basement and decided I had to let him cry through it (in an attempt to get him back on schedule).

Is this just the result of a 4-day change to his scheudle? Could he all of a sudden not want the crib since he slept in a big bed with me? Is he now so attached (after only 4 nights) that he is wanting to sleep with me (previous attempts to get him to sleep with us when he was sick etc never worked...he seemed to hate co-sleeping and always ended up back in his bed or up all night)? Opinions and advice???? Once I do finally get him to go to sleep (he cried through it one night and at naptimes and I had to put him in bed with me the others to get him to fall asleep, he sleeps through the night as usual. It is just frustrating because he has never done this!!!!!!!!

He is going through the bedtime ritual with the other 3 and says night night over and over to them and kisses them goodnight. We can tell him it is night night for him and he will run upstairs to his crib and hang onto the rails until I put him in, then the crying starts. He won't sit down, but sobs and sobs. It rips my heart out...I told my husband to listen to it makes me feel like I am dying!!!

I know other people have MUCH bigger issues than this, so thank you for listening and trying to help.

[becky]

Children can get used to sleeping with you VERY quickly. Once they have that security of sleeping beside Mommy, it is very hard to go back to sleeping in a bed/crib alone.

If it's extremely important to you for him to sleep alone then you will have to keep at it to try to get him back to sleeping in his own bed. If you don't really mind, then let him co-sleep...it might be easier on everyone.

[cborsa7]

I agree. That was all it took for him to get used to liking it. Same happened to my parents with me. Put me in bed with them 2 nights and I wouldn't go back to crib after that.
I'm afraid you have 2 choices. Keep sleeping with him now or continue the process to get him sleeping by himself again. Stay consistent. If you are letting him work it out, I highly suggest the book, solve your child's sleep problems.
It explains sleep patterns, why kids can change sleep habits so easily, and causes. It also gives the details on how to let him work it out easily. Once you understand it and hear the other parents stories it makes it much easier when they are crying to understand.
Good luck with whatever works for you!

[debhorner04]

We had a problem with DD after being on vacation this summer. Although she slept in the pack-n-play, she would SCREAM in the middle of the night (can't let her do that in a hotel). She ended up in the bed with us for the remainder of the night and for nap times. It took 2 weeks of being home and being consistent to get her back on her schedule. It was tough, but we did it. Over the Holidays, her schedule was disrupted a few times----it then took 4 nights to get her back to going to bed without the screaming. It's hard to listen to, but as long as you know they have a clean diaper, are fed, and are not hurt or sick, they will eventually quiet down. Hang in there! It will and does get better!

[Guatemom]

no advice really; just wanted to tell you we've also had our share of sleep-issues with both boys and that DH & I also disagree about the 'best' ways to go about dealing with them. Big help I am, eh? FWIW, from your post I do think that yes, after just the 4 days, he has come to expect to co-sleeping. Good luck and please keep us posted!!

[joyloo]

Interesting you should post this question... Just a few nights ago DS woke up in the middle of the night calling for me. Since he never wakes up in the middle of the night I went in to see what was wrong. Thinking he may have had a nightmare or something I took him out of his crib to lay down with me in the bed we have in his room. He never fell asleep ( he never does when we try to co-sleep with him ). I tried to put him back in his crib because he wasn't upset at all. When I did this all hell broke loose. He cried so hard! DH couldn't handle the crying so he brought him downstairs to lay with him on the couch hoping he would fall asleep. After a while DS did fall asleep. The next night DS was in a very good mood at bedtime but as soon as I put him in his crib to go to sleep he cried horribly. DH finally went upstairs and sternly told him it was bedtime and he needs to go to sleep. He immediately fell asleep. I think that he just needed to be told. You might want to try that? At least it worked for us.

[shelbydog]

Sorry you are going through this. We're a Ferber family and were with both kids. They both sleep well in their own beds and always have, but I have to say - we are strict with sleeping and treat it like a "rule" in our home. We sleep trained using Ferber (it's not complete cry it out). And we did have to re-use it after vacations and illness several times, and each time it worked for us. Your child needs to learn to sleep on his/her own. Ferber teaches them that you are still there but it teaches them to put themselves to sleep.

Unless you are willing to co-sleep which is fine if that is what you want, you will have to do some type of cry it out or Ferber. At the most it took our kids 2 nights to adjust and they were back to sleeping in their own beds. If you want to PM me I'll tell you what we did.

BTW, our ped. office in PA where we used to live actually gave out an instruction sheet on Ferbering...these are excellent pediatricians that believe you are doing yourselves and your children a favor by teaching them to go to sleep on their own.

If I can help just PM me. But yes, after even a short trip or illness, they can come to depend on different places to sleep.

[JillnChris]

Eva has always been a great sleeper. There was a period of a week though where she would scream bloody murder for 3 hours every night when putting her to sleep. First we tried sitting in the room while she was in her crib, that didn't work she just cried harder. Then I started doing the modified cio method. Basically you go in the first time after a minute of crying lay them back down tell them "I love you but it is time to sleep." The next time you wait 2 minutes, then 3, and so on and so on. Once we started doing this the crying got less and less and it made me feel better that we weren't just leaving her in there crying for the whole 3 hours.
On a side note you want to make sure there are no medical issues going on like an ear infection. I agree with you that it is probably just the trip that messed him up.