21mo escaping crib and sleep regression

Question

So my little dude has been having a bit of trouble going to bed for about a week. Instead of just plopping down and nodding off when we place him in the crib, he would whimper and whinny for a few minutes before simmering down. Then lo and behold, we hear a ton of crying through the monitor, we ignore for a minute but then it gets worse. So we rush in to find him on the floor, out of the crib walking around. (He didn't seem to get hurt at all, so that's good.)

For the last two nights since The Escape, he had one night where he went down alright, but I had to sit in there for 15 minutes while we dozed off. Same thing at nap time. Last night started out alright too, with the same routine. I actually thought it went a bit better because I didn't sit, I just shushed him and told him to lay down while I was standing by the door.

It almost happened againg. 2am, he starts wailing and we seem him begin the escape process through the monitor. We go in and prevent that from happening, but then he won't settle down for 60-90 minutes. I end up sleeping on the floor for the rest of the night (a habit that will not end well for either of us).

So we have a two-part problem: a sleep regression and the ability to escape.

Possible reasons for both: holiday break, molar teething, normal developmental milestones

Can anyone give some insight on how to approach this problem?
(Happy New Year 2017! What a great way to start!)

Answer 1

If your housing situation allows it, you might work around the escape problem by making it safe to escape. Our daughter sleeps in her own room. That room has her cot in it and a regular size mattress on the floor, and not much else, except some books and toys. So there's no harm in her escaping from the cot. Such a setup would also mean you don't have to sleep on the floor if your boy won't settle down.

Answer 2

He probably is looking for you. You can continue with your current methods, and he'll probably get over it, or you can keep him closer.

You can move his crib into your bedroom. Such a move may affect intimacy, but at 21 months I wouldn't worry too much about him having a negative reaction; he would probably sleep through it.

Every couple of months, you can make another attempt to put him back in his own bedroom. However, with improved.sleep patterns, you might decide it's better for everyone to keep him close.

I don't think this plan would change if you had another baby; they may keep each other company and move them both into a kids bedroom simultaneously.

Answer 3

Once my son started escaping we got rid of the cot and bought him a "big boy bed". We were concerned about injury with him climbing out of the cot in the middle of the night half asleep.

It took him a few days to adjust to the new bed and we used pool noodles under the fitted sheet as bumpers to prevent him rolling out.