Another month, another sleep problem in our house! I swear, every time I post here it's about a sleep problem!

D is 3 years old. He has had problems in the past with being scared at bedtime by a "ghost." We got past that and everything was going smoothly. Shortly before A was born, he started coming into our room early in the morning (like 6am), and we'd just let him get into bed with us until we were ready to get up for the day.

Recently, he has started waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room. Initially he was waking up crying, sometimes downright screaming, like he was afraid. We'd take him back to his room and put him back to bed. He gets upset because we won't let him into our bed. We explain that it's too early and he needs to go back to sleep. We have tried leaving the room before he falls back alseep, but that just results in him screaming and crying, and we're worried about him waking up the baby. One night we fought with him (put him in bed, crying, left the room, he came back crying even harder, rinse, repeat) for almost 2 hours before giving up and just letting him sleep in our bed - then I had to get out of bed because he took over my pillow and was kicking me and snoring in my ear! This week, he started just coming into our room, not crying, and he was calmly going back to his room and going back to bed easily. I thought we were finally getting past this whole phase.

But then last night it was another hour of trying to get him back into his own bed before I again gave up and just let him into our bed. At one point, he finally told me that he doesn't like his room because he hears a scary sound outside. When I asked what it sounded like, he said "the black cat." A couple weeks ago, there were 2 cats fighting outside our family room window and he got scared by their growling at each other. So last night I explained that it's just a cat who is outside and can't come int our house and told him that he's safe. And still - tears and screaming when I left the room.

If A weren't sleeping in the room next door, I'd let him just cry it out. But I don't want him waking her up. So it's just this struggle. Every night. I don't know what to do!!!

Sorry for the long rant. I'm just so tired of this fight and really at a loss.