30 months old wants to cosleep

[cjeanjot]

hi there,

I'm looking for advice from cosleeping parents.

DS is 30 months. He is a very independant kid, weaned himself at 14 months while I would have prefered to continue and sleeps in his bed since he's 1 month and in his own room since he's 4 months.

He was always a good sleeper, slept through the night at 2 months and was incredibly easy to put to sleep until recently.

Since a month he does not want to go to sleep by himsef. He wants me to stay with him or - better - he wants to sleep with me in my bed. He knows exactly what he wants and can express it well. Yesterday night when I tried to explain that this was MY bed and that he had his own bed he told i needed to share...

I tried a lot of things: stay next to him until he is asleep (but it sometimes takes a long time and he often wakes up when i leave the room), take him with me in the kitchen for a while, close the door and let him cry (gasps) etc...

The thing is that DH and I both work full time and I need a couple of hours in the evening to do necessary household tasks (laundry, preparing DS lunch and our dinner) so i can't go to bed with him at 7 or 8pm.

I have no problem taking him in my bed later in the night if he wakes up but I need this time in the evening.

How do you cosleeping parents deal with that issue? Do you put your kids to sleep in your bed before joining them?  Do you adjust your kid sleeping time to fit with your schedule?

There has been a lot of changes recently (new daycare, new baby on the way, I had a very hectic month at the office etc...) so I understand he's going through a phase - I would love to help him go through it and sleep better.

Thanks in advance

C

[CascadiaMama]

Alex (14 months) either goes to sleep in our bed or his at about 7/8, then he joins us or we join him at 10/10:30.

In our bed, we put pillows on either side of him. And it's a fairly low platform bed. He's also not a roller, and know how to back out of the bed when he's awake, so we aren't concerned about him falling out. I prefer putting him to bed there most nights, so I don't have to disturb him.

If he falls asleep in his bed (a floor mattress), I'll either scoop him up after I'm ready for bed, or he'll stir on his own by 11. Last night, I actually went to bed with DP and read for a bit, and we both fell asleep. Alex woke me up shortly, and I got him and brought him to our bed. Eventually, I think we'll do more of this--waiting to see if/when he wakes up in his bed before bringing him to ours. But he's still very young. And we're headed into winter--he's a cover kicker-offer, so I'd prefer he sleeps between two warm parents!

Once we're all in the same bed, he nurses for a few minutes, then sleeps through until 6:30/7.