Vacation screwed up toddler's sleeping

I searched the group but I didn't find anything on this topic. My
wife and I went on vacation with our 2.5 year old son and we had a two
room suite. When it got around to his bedtime we put him to sleep on a
blowup mattress in the bedroom. He was a little nervous before going to
bed so I stayed in the bedroom with him until he fell asleep (about 10
minutes) and then I went to the other room. During the night, he woke
up scared a couple of times due to the loud bed we had Each time my
wife calmed him down and all was well.

The first night we got back home he didn't want to go to bed. He
wanted to stay up with us. Now, he has a toddler bed and he switched to
it from his crib pretty well. He has been sleeping in it for a while
now and has been doing great. He used to happily go to bed and stayed
there until he woke up in the morning. We never had to sit in the room
until he fell asleep. Now, he is waking up in the middle of the night
crying and saying how he wants to be with us or he wants us in his room
with him. Now, he seems to get a little anxious before going to bed.

We tried the "just keep putting him back to bed without comment" thing
but he would immediately get out of bed, crying, telling us to wait
because he wants to go downstairs with us. I tried it for 45 minutes
but he just kept getting out of bed. He is stubborn! Does anyone have
any suggestions? Or, has anyone seen something like this before?

bizby40...

Yes, it's typical for kids to get off kilter when their routines are
disrupted. It always took us about 3 weeks, to get back on track
after a visit to grandma's. Just keep to your normal routine. He'll
settle back into it soon.

anon06...

That's a relief! What did you do to deal with your child always not
wanting to go to bed, to stay with you or want you to stay with him in
his room? We are at a loss. I mean, I don't mind sitting in his room
waiting for him to fall asleep and then leaving the room. Its the
waking up crying at 12, 4, and 5am telling us that he wants to sleep in
our bed and not being able to get him into his unless we, once again,
stay in his room until he falls asleep.

I'm sorry if I am repeating myself but I am bewildered and don't know
what to do. What did you do to deal with this?

Thanks for the response!

Rosalie B....

I would suggest that his behavior now is because when he waked up
while you were on vacation, he found that, you were with him in the
same room. And he liked that and wants it to continue. Or else he
has developed some type of fear of being alone in his room.

If it is a fear, you will have to figure out how to allay it, or the
behavior will continue as long as you let it go on. You have to
explain to him before it gets to be bedtime, how it is going to be,
and then stick to it. You will not come and stay with him at night.
He's old enough to understand that.

If I thought that one of my children had a concern which they didn't
have the language to tell me about, I used to tell them a story with
themselves as the main character.