Kicking sleeping toddler?

[kofduke]

My DS sleeps in his own bed, but he loves for me to crawl in with him in the morning, and lay down with him while he's falling asleep. The problem? He's a kicker. Could this be harmful? Any ideas re: how to help him stop kicking, or how to prevent injury? I've been thinking of curling up with a pillow around my belly, so that he'll kick that instead of me...

[Spark]

Hmmm, let's think about this. I'm trying to dig back in my memory to a little over a yar ago. I remember my son had the same problem. He was 18 mos or so then. As I remember, I would tell him whenever he kicked that it hurt mommy. I remember trying to cover up my belly with my arms. And, I *know* we used a pillow or stuffed animal over my belly.

Really there shouldn't be damage done to the baby. It just HURTS is all! The baby is protected really well. I wouldn't let him hurt you though.

[Geofizz]

My strategy for the "you're hurting mommy" is to use exactly the same words as I'd use when DD gets hurt. So, when Karen bangs into the wall, I'd say, "owie, oh, Karen, you really bonked your head. That must hurt." When she pinches, kicks, or whatever to me, I say "owie. Karen, that really hurt mommy." I'll go on to talk about gentle touches, but the goal was really to cement that the words "owie" and "hurt" mean the same thing to me when she kicks as they do to her when she runs into a wall. Granted, this is harder in the middle of the night. Honestly, though, as long as he doesn't have his track spikes on, I don't think it will do damage to the baby. It might do damage to mommy, though, and mommy's poor bladder.