And baby makes four in the family bed

[LDSmomma]

I don't think DS (2 yo) will EVER want to sleep in his own bed!!  Currently, we try to put him in his own bed, hoping to transition to that before the new baby comes (and we've been doing this since before I was pregnant), but he wakes up after only an hour and wants to come to our bed.  He's happy to go to sleep in his bed, but always wakes after an hour.  When I try putting him back to sleep in his bed, he wakes up another hour later, and it will continue all night (DH actually slept in the floor in his room last week, and he woke up 7 times, with DH getting him back to sleep each time, until finally DH slept through DS climbing over him on the floor to come to the family bed.

When he is put to sleep in our bed, he stays asleep all night, maybe occasionally waking sometime during the wee hours.  For instance, 2 nights ago, he went to sleep in his bed, woke an hour later, I nursed him back down, then woke up 30 minutes later, then woke up a 3rd time, so I switched him to the family bed (DH & I were downstairs talking), and he slept through the night from that point, even though we didn't come to bed for a while yet.

So, my question is... if this trend continues, what should we do to prepare for a 4th in the bed.  DS is a VERY light sleeper, and I worry about the little baby waking him up all night long.  I also worry about DS rolling over baby or something.  We don't have room in our bedroom for a cosleeper or sidecarred crib or anything. 

DH is considering sleeping w/ DS in his room, but at this point, when that happens, DS still wakes wanting mama (which doesn't happen if I sleep in his bed with him, he never wakes at all).

[MarineWife]

We had/have 4 in our bed (not right at this moment since my dh is deployed). When ds3 was born, I put him on one side of the bed with a bedrail. Then came me, then ds2 who was 3.5yo at the time, then my dh. It worked fine. I'm not sure what to do now with baby #4 coming and no signs of either of the other boys sleeping in their own beds, who are 7.5yo and 4yo. We have tried several times to transition them to their own room but they do as your ds does, wake several times a night. I became exhausted doing that and gave up. I needed sleep. They both sleep through the night when they are in our bed.

Right now since my dh is deployed, I guess I will try putting baby on one side of the bed with a bedrail as before and the other boys on the other side of the bed. The problem with that at this point is that they both say they have to be next to me. If I can't get older big brother to agree to sleep on the other side of the bed, I'll have to try making them take turns.
Edited by MarineWife - 6/14/11 at 5:20am