4.5 year old needs to stay in her bed! Help!!!!!!!!

[kmecke]

We have been co-sleeping with our daughter since she was born but now that she is older (4.5) and we have a 9 month old baby we have got to get her to sleep in her bed the whole night. She takes up so much room that my husband is getting no sleep at all!!! She will fall asleep in her bed but half way through the night she will get in our bed and when we put her back she wakes up again a little later and gets in our bed again. Half the time she gets in our bed I dont fully realize it until the morning when shes RIGHT next to me and my husband is on the couch. (Im a hard sleeper) PLEASE, do you have any advice to help keep this little girly in her own pretty pink bed! We have talked to her about it but she just doesnt want to.... maybe I should do some rewards or something.... I dont know but we need to do something!!!!

[Quaniliaz]

We needed the same thing to happen with our six year old after our little one was born. A few things worked for us. We asked that she call for us, and one of us would lay with her. So, someone goes to lay with her to get her back to sleep, and then they get back into the big bed when she is sleeping. This may happen more than one time at night, and the person may just spend the night there, if they don't wake back up. (Apparently comfortable enough not to wake up...)

The second is that we told her that she is always welcome to carry her blanket and pillow into our room and sleep on the floor next to our bed. She has only done this once, and it was lovely, and I wish it would happen more - there is something very special about everyone in your family *comfortably* fitting in one sleeping area. Our mattress is on the floor, so it was almost as if she was in the same bed...

[alegna]

Move her pretty pink bed to your room for now.

Dd moved to her own bed and room at 4 and moved back at 4.5.

-Angela

[ssh]

It's really developmentally normal for your 4.5 year old to need to sleep by someone. You are expecting the next to youngest person in the house to be the only one sleeping alone.

I'd either move her bed next to yours or bed the family bed bigger by adding twin mattresses next to it.

[LianneM]

We have a twin bed in our room next to our king. We've had it that way for a while just for convenience but now we are getting more insistent that DS (4.5) sleep on it, and he is getting more and more willing to go there to sleep. He's just not ready to be in his own room yet.

[rubidoux]

Our bedroom is all mattress, a king and a twin right up next to each other and it is so wonderful to all be in there. I agree that four is very young to not feel lonely in her own room. If you don't have room for another mattress in your room, maybe some kind of little cushy nest next to your bed. I'm thinking maybe something like a big cushy dog bed. I think I woulda loved that at her age.

[Shanny2032]

I agree with pp's that getting dd her own sleeping place within your room would be best but if you are needing her to be in her own room for whatever reason there is something that might help. It is called the goodnite lite. You set a pm/bed time - say 8 pm and the moon comes out. That let's her know it is bedtime. And you set a wake up time - when the sun comes out and she knows she can then get up. You can tell her that she can only come to your bed with the sun is up. Maybe even set it for a little earlier than everyone wakes so that if she is up she can come have some cuddle time. It is a little brite so if it's too much you can just use the sun setting. HTH

[bobandjess99]

We finally gave in and got a king size mattress, which fits all of us. We have considered butting another twin up against it for even more room.
Whiel the norm in our weird society, lol, sleeping by yourself all alone is not physiologically or emotionally normal for humans, especially tiny baby ones like your dd.
it might make more sense for dh to just sleep somewhere else, if that works for you guys.

[rzberrymom]

Originally Posted by ssh

I'd either move her bed next to yours or bed the family bed bigger by adding twin mattresses next to it.

This is the arrangement we have for my 4 1/2 year old--it works GREAT!