Help with toddler sleep

amother

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 8:53 pm

I’ve been having a tough time with my 2.5 year old at bedtime. He insists on me staying with him till he falls asleep. This would be somewhat ok if that were the end of it-though it has its drawbacks such as me not being as available for my 8 year old who also wants to cuddle with me. Also sometimes I fall asleep in the bed and then my sleep is interrupted. It also takes away from things I need to do in the house in the evening. All that aside, if he would stay asleep it would be manageable. But now he wakes up every night at 2am looking for me because he got used to me being in the bed with him. I end up waking up and going into his room and falling asleep in the other bed there. It’s really not a tenable situation but I’m not sure how to handle this without letting him cry. Also Dh can’t handle him crying at all so very hard. Tonight I tried giving him his comfort toys in bed and a special light when I left the room. Then I was going to soothe him every 5 min until he goes to sleep but he was crying and Dh couldn’t deal with it so I ended up back in the room. Any gentle ways to change this routine?