first part of night in her own bed, now what?

[hildare]

dd likes her "big person" bed.  she likes to nap and go to sleep in there.  how can i get her to stay in there all night?  tell me how you went from part of the night to all of the night!  she's nightweaned and is becoming a pretty good sleeper (i can hardly believe it).

[Rebeckam]

Looking forward to seeing some responses as 

I'm still in process of getting my 20 month old into his toddler bed all night (it's in our room, right next to me). some nights he's there til morning, others he is back with us at 2 or 3a.

[cameragirl]

The best way to do this is different for every family. We put a small blow up mattress for one of us to sleep on next to her bed for a few days. After that, she was pretty comfortable sleeping in the bed by herself.

[Imakcerka]

We have a no work week rule.  If I have to work the next morning you have to stay in your bed.  If I don't have to work you're welcome to come to mine if you need to.  It took sometime but now they forget about coming to my bed or sleep through their urge to suffocate me in mine. 

We had issues when our oldest was little she literally wouldn't sleep unless she was in our bed or we were in hers.  So not fun!  She grew out of it.  It was tough at the time but we tried everything EVERYTHING!  Good luck.

[nicole528]

I just logged on to write this exact same post.....We just got our 20.5 month DD a toddler bed yesterday (she's been in our bed since birth).  She's never been a good sleeper but has gotten significantly better the past few months.  I wanted to wait til after the summer to put her in the new bed but DH put her in there tonight to sleep since I was at work.  I have come home and have mixed opinions on having her in there (and I'm a little annoyed at him jumping the gun!)

I really want to make this a smooth transition for her and do not want to confuse her.  So I'm also wondering....now what?!?!  Do I bring her in our bed once she cries (she will cry before midnight and then may sleep through til about 4) or do I try to get her back to sleep in her bed.  I always nurse her to sleep, but this bed is so small that I don't think I'll fit with her there.  I don't really want to start the routine of once she cries, bringing her into our bed b/c I feel like that would be much harder to break down the road.  And now I'm even wondering if she is ready for this or are we just ready for her to get out of our bed? 

Thanks for listening....I feel really confused right now on what to do!!!

Nicole (mama to DD 11/09 )

[FrenchMama]

I have a similar problem; my DD turned 2 last week and I am 6 months pregnant. I've always put her to sleep in her crib but then picked her up when she woke up in the middle of the night. A few weeks ago we got her a double bed and I've been pretty much sleeping with her until recently when DH put his feet down!! So now I put her to bed in her bed and go back to my bed but then one of us goes with her when she wakes up and pretty much ends up spending the rest of the night with her. I work full time so I don't have the energy to get her back to sleep and go back to my own bed afterwards. How will we handle it once DS comes along??? I have no idea!!

[JollyGG]

Couple things that have worked to some degree or another for us:

1. Go lay down with them in their own bed. That way they got used to sleeping in their own room and waking up there.

2. Go sit in their room with them until they fall back asleep but go back to our own bed once they are asleep.

3. Set a time that they can get up and join us in bed. Either a time on their alarm, or when it's light out or whatever is recognizable to them.

4. Make sure that they have a morning cuddle time in our bed once they do get up.

5. Straight up bribery - If they stay in their own bed all night they get to pick a small prize out of a bucket.

[midnightmommy]

We used to put our son down for the night, and let him come sleep with us when he woke up. To be honest the fight in the middle of the night was not worth it to me. Even laying down and rubbing his back was not going to happen for me. At about three he told us he didn't want to sleep in our room anymore and never came back. Our DD is a different story. She's just a different kid. We are still co-sleeping with her, but she has been asking to try to sleep in her bed in the other room. She hasn't made it to sleep yet, but I'm excited that she is thinking about it. I wouldn't put pressure on it unless you just can't take it anymore.

[Caralan]

I also logged on to write a similar question. We have been cosleeping with our three year old since birth. 6 months ago her sister was born and I've been cosleeping with her as well. Both my husband and I have made the decision to move our three year old into her own bed, in her own room. The first night went great. She slept thru the whole night as she was commonly doing when sleeping with us. The next 5 or 6 nights she woke up once and I went in and laid in bed with her until she fell back asleep. However, the last 2-3 nights she's been waking every couple of hours, about 3x per night and then at dawn. Between that and her sister waking to nurse, I'm not getting any restful sleep. None of us are really. I'm considering putting a toddler bed in our room and see if that would work better as a stepping stone. We have a night light in her room and leave her door and our door open. Am feeling desperate after waking 6x last night in a period of 6 or so hours.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Edited by Caralan - 8/7/11 at 11:14am

[Imakcerka]

You know I forgot to mention this, we used to use the bedtime fairy.  If they slept in their bed all night they would wake up to find a small trail of sparkles... just a few and a little note.  If they made it to a week of sleeping alone, they got a small toy along with the little note and of course the little trail of sparkles.  It worked a while, until they found my sparkles... and tiny toys.