My 3 year old son has had very disturbed sleep the last 2-3 weeks.

It has been very humid recently which seems to have made things worse (the sleeping situation has improved since the weather changed). The light evenings mean he says "its not dark yet" when I try to put him to bed (a blanket over his window has made it easier). He has had a very slight snotty nose with a small amount of green/yellow crusty mucus over the last week or so.

He has been waking anywhere between 4 to 6.30am and has been distressed - shouting "where are you mummy", sometimes saying he is frightened, sometimes just crying. When he has woken during the night he has come in to my bed with me and gone back to sleep.

Sometimes when I have tried to put him to bed he has he has said "I don't like my room", he has always seemed happy in there. About 5 months ago he started asking me to leave his light on when I put him to bed. He has always gone to bed without any problems (but always trying for another story), and has slept through the night from about 5 months old.

He has been dry at night since Easter, but has wet the bed virtually every night for the last 2 weeks, sometimes twice, but has stayed dry during the day.

He has fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair, and a very attractive sprinkling of small, pale freckles over the bridge of his nose . He is a confident, affectionate child with a happy personality , sometimes he can be a little shy. His verbal skills are very well developed and he is well ahead of his age group in this area .

He has a pale birthmark on his left wrist - present since birth. It is quite large on his small arm but is the only one he has. He is not overweight, but has a "stocky" build, he is of average height for his age. He likes to watch videos, read (and will read in bed ), play with his toys and likes his cars and trains best, he likes music, singing and nursery rhymes, he loves to draw, paint, run and climb .

Elliot is tired at the moment, as he has not been having as much sleep as he needs. I can see it coming out in his behaviour - he is very "whiney", sucks his thumb a lot during the day and his concentration / attention span is not so good.

I am tired too as I have had broken sleep and everything seems to be taking longer to do. I am getting grumpy and bad tempered too and we seem to be having lots of confrontation as my patience has left me .

I have been putting him to bed at the usual time - by 8pm at the latest, but we usually have some bedtime stories. A week ago he did not go to sleep until 5 hours later than usual , but I have got that down to about an hour later than usual over the last few days. He has been telling me he does not want me to leave "I want you to stay here" when I have tried to leave. I have been leaving him with his music tapes playing and he has come to get me to turn them over when they have stopped.

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