Monsters in the bedroom

Denikka - posted on 07/29/2011 ( 4 moms have responded )

My son is 28 months old and has been sleeping in his own bed for the past 7 months or so. Before that, I coslept with him. The transition to his own bed went smoothly and we've barely had a hitch since.
Recently though, everything's changed.
We moved from BC (from living with my grandparents whom my son got very attached to, lived there for 10 months) to Saskatoon (back with the kids dad). I know this is a huge change for a little person, so I expected some sleeping/eating/behavioral issues. I got some, but I was not expecting this. The eating and behavioral stuff has basically started sorting itself out, but the sleeping problems are just getting worse.
We have NEVER had a problem with monsters before. The occasional bad dream, but nothing serious. Torin is currently TERRIFIED of his bedroom. Day or night, if he has to go into his room for just about any reason, especially alone, there is tears, there is screaming, there is downright terror.
We're not sure what to try at this point. He'll sleep in his bed for a little while, but will wake up and either run to my bed and jump in or he'll stand in his doorway and scream until I come to get him. He wants NOTHING to do with dad, only mom (which is understandable cause dad was away for 10 months, out of province). He will NOT go back to sleep in his own room once he wakes up. If I even attempt to bring him back to his room, he freaks out, starts struggling and crying.
I know this isn't just a bid for attention, he's truly scared of something, but we're running out of ideas. We've tried a nightlight (he's always had one, even when cosleeping), reassurance, I've tried staying with him in his room, we've even tried monster repellent and kicking the monster out of the house. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to traumatize him by forcing him to stay in a room where he's scared, but there's no where else to move him and there's really no room in the *big* bed and no money for a bigger one. The rooms are too small to comfortably move his bed into the room with us. So at this point, I dunno.
If anyone has options or ideas, I'm willing to try just about anything. There's a VERY sleepy young boy, and a fairly tired momma who both need to get this monster gone and get a good nights sleep