Floor bed help

[olien]

My LO is just going to turn 9mo and we use a floor bed and bed share. He naps and starts his night on the floor bed then sometime around 12 or 1am when he wakes to eat I bring him to bed with us. I get more sleep that way & I think he wakes less too.

He fights sleep. He always has. Even when he is really tired.

My question is how do you guys put them down with a floor bed?? I find I lay on his mattress with him to keep him on the bed. So he is in between me & the wall. He plays with me (hair, face, etc), the wall (pounding, trying to eat, standing), and anything else he can until he is completely exhausetd and most nights crying. It could take anywhere from 20min (rare & if exhausted) to 1.5 hrs. Ave being 45 - 50min.

I think If I didnt lay next to him he would just be all over the room. Playing with all of his toys/books/things. Is that what I am supposed to be doing?? Then just let him crawl into bed (or not) and go to sleep when he is ready. Would this help foster his independence? I feel like he wont go to sleep now if I'm not laying beside him. I couldnt leave him in his room unattended to go to sleep bec he is to unsteady on his feet and tries to stand every chance he gets.

Help please. Thanks

I'm also going to post in Life with a Babe

[Lillianna]

Montessori talks about the child falling asleep on the low bed, in the presence of an adult in her book "the child in the family"
My dd (especially when young) wanted me near but like your dc, would be distracted if I was "too available".
I asked my mom, who raised 8 children, how she would handle it. She said she would do nighttime routine (wash up, brush teeth, pajamas, book or lullaby) then snuggle in bed a few minutes, then just get busy around the room, slowly move to the bathroom next door, or out to the hall and never really saying good night. This worked for my little one. Now we have moved on to saying good night, hug and kiss, then I sit on the couch in the sitting room next door.
Good luck!

[freistms]

This probably isn't the answer you are hoping to hear, but I wouldn't be surprised if your LO needs you to lay down, too, for another year or more. It is typical for a child that age to want company when they are transitioning to sleep. It makes them feel safe. And IME, the time frames you mentioned (20 minutes to an hour or two) are a completely normal sleep latency period for a toddler. I was so concerned when my ODD was little that I asked the doc about it (he reassured me that it was completely normal). Since then, I've heard from many people that their little ones regularly hold on for that long, and my YDD still does, too.

[chekhovgirl]

We laid down or sat next to DS and we still do because that's just what works with him. He was on a mattress on the floor from around 12 months to 19 months and now he's in a bed. For a while I tried moving to outside his room or down the hall and he was content and didn't cry, but it turned into a silly game of him getting out of bed every two seconds to peek at me or find me (he's 2 now), and we had to leave the door a little bit ajar or he would cry. What you're doing now seems completely normal, as another poster said.