Tips to encourage 4yo to use twin bed? Baby due soon, not enough room for both :(

[Ophelia]

Finally just the other day, I moved a twin bed next to mine for DS to sleep in.  He has been bedsharing since about 3-4 weeks old.  Issues:

-I have a full size bed on the floor
-I don't even WANT to stop bedsharing with DS (even though he is a bedhog and I get an arm whapped in my face nearly every night when he stretches), however the baby is due in less than 2 months.  There is not enough room for me to bedshare with both him and the baby, what with having to switch sides when baby wakes to nurse.  And I do have to switch sides.  I need to be between him and baby for safety.
-I thought it might be easier to have the twin bed (on frame, so up higher) next to mine at first so he can get used to the transition
-DS has a hard time with transitions
-DH sleeps on a queen in the master bedroom.  The reason I don't want DS sleeping in there regularly right now, is we have an old, incontinent dog who regularly messes at night.  I do NOT want DS waking up/disturbed sleep when DH turns the light on to clean it up.

The first night, he was in the twin most of the night and then got up to snuggle with me early morning.  Last night, he only lasted a couple hours in the twin bed and then laid next to me for the rest of the night.

I can keep looking for a 'special' secondhand bedspread set (he likes Thomas the Train) to encourage him, but other than that are there any other options?

[nadia105]

No advice here, since I have a similar issue with my 3.5 yo and a babe due in 4 months, but I am hoping someone has a tried and true way of making the transition.

FWIW, I tried the 'special' blanket thing and set up a spot right next to my side of the bed, but he never lasts there for more than a few hours and then in he climbs.  Maybe if I was firmer about it or made sure to keep moving him back if he went to sleep in our bed?

[hollytheteacher]

subbing because i have a 3.5 year old and i'm due in 2 months and we have a king with a twin next to it (litearlly pushed against it) and he still doesn't like to be in it.  We have him start out in it and then he crawls into our bed half way through the night, not sure how to work it once the baby is born so we are all safe...

[raelize]

we had/have this issue right now.  we have a queen. have always co-slept.  when i was pregnant with dd2, we put a twin next to the bed, and dd1 pretty much transitioned into it.  she would sleep there half the night, then pop into our bed.  i would just move with the baby intot he twin and she slept in the queen with dh.  she was almost 3 when dd2 came along. 

now, we moved the twin into her room when she turned 4, almost a year ago.  seh will still 99% of the time come to our bed.  so, all four of us - dh, me, 5 year old dd1 adn 2+ dd2 are all squished into a queen.  i can't take it anymore.  sometimes dh goes and sleeps in the twin. sometimes dd2 and i go sleep in the twin.  but what seems to work now is that dh or i walk dd1 back to her bed and lay down with her.  when we wake up again we go back to our own bed.

it is a serious issue with us. we can't afford right now to buy another twin bed to put in our room, but i don't want to put her twin back in our room.  it is really hard to put both of them asleep together.  and it would just feel like we're regressing.

so, i don't think i have answered your question.  i don't know that there is one.  but i hope someone comes on to help you all.

[Ophelia]

Thanks!  I should have mentioned that he is a good sleeper, I think he is just not used to not having another warm body next to him and so he wakes up (when  he sleeps with DH, DH's snoring can also wake him), so that is why he woke up both times in his own bed at odd times. 

He sleeps fine elsewhere by himself, like for taking naps or sleepovers at Grandma's.

DH and I could TRY switching beds after baby is born so I can try to sleep with both baby and DS, but I'm not sure how well that work for the following:

-DH has back problems and says he needs a firm bed.  My full size is a pillow top and the queen is firm

-I used to sleep on the firm but was never very comfortable, and now when I try, I get pretty stiff on the side I am laying on (side sleeper)

-we definitely cannot afford any new beds right now, I have been unmployed since April.  Can't afford to buy a memory foam topper for the firm queen either.  We used to have one, then DH said it was hurting his back so we got rid of it.

[Oka-san]

Did you say that your bed is on the floor, but that the new one is up higher, on a frame? (That's how I'm reading it...) If so, could you put the twin mattress on the floor too, so that the two beds are at the same level and are pushed right together so that they are like one big bed? Maybe your DS feels strange with the configuration as it is and that's why he won't sleep in the twin? 

[Ophelia]

Yes, DS actually did say last night that he did not like the bed up higher (and the slight crack in between beds) so I will remove the frame and drop the bed on the floor.  I think this will make the twin bed lower than my pillow top full size, since the twin is not a pillow top.

Of course, this kid will find a different excuse every time, but we'll see!  The night before it was monsters so that is when he slept with DH.  He mentioned the monsters again last night I think also (he has monster spray but I guess it didn't make him feel any better this time).

Thanks, I will see how it goes.

[Ophelia]

Dropping the twin bed from the frame actually made it about the same height as my pillowtop (I just remembered I have a low profile box under the pillowtop, that's why!).  So I can either have the two beds pushed together and try and keep him on the twin, or have them slighly apart with a crack.  So far I have had them slighly apart, but he doesn't like it.  I asked him to try sleeping on the twin and he is not going to be comfortable in the crack.  Last night he slept all on the twin except about 4am he felt for my face and moved towards me. 

I think I'm going to have to leave it like that for a couple weeks, and then remove my nightstand so I can actually separate the two beds and see how he does with that.  It's also a tough time to be doing this in the middle of winter when everyone wants a snuggly, warm body next to them!

[Oka-san]

Cool, sounds like it's working a bit... when we did this with DD when DS was born, I ended up putting a long, king-sized pillow along the crack between the two beds after DD fell asleep, and then she couldn't roll over to the big bed in the middle of the night. It acted like a barrier between her and DS, too. Good luck, mama, it will work itself out!