[ChasingPeace]

Our ds is 16 months old and we're wondering if he'd be happier in his own bed, at least for part of the night. Whenever I get up during the night, ds immediately moves to occupy my space. In fact, he moves around a lot during the night trying to find his own space (often ending up at the foot of the bed!) If he wakes up during the night or during a nap, he still cries, whether he's sleeping alone or if one/both of us are in the bed. We thought we might try getting him his own bed and keeping it in our room, but am not sure when/if/how we should transition him, and what kind of bed to get (twin, "toddler," day bed, futon). Our bedroom is very small, occupied mostly by our kingsize bed, so we don't have a lot of room. Any advice? Thanks!

 

[miasmommy]

Hi there.

My 15 mo. old DD has been sleeping in a "travel & trundle bed" that I purchased on line thru onestepahead.com- It's in the Leapsandbounds Travel Solution section. We have it next to our queen size bed & so far, so good...she likes it!

We especially like it because it is easy to carry in its own bag & comes w/ a cotton sheet.

Good Luck!

miasmommy

 

[Maman*Musique]

When our oldest began to move like you describe, we bought another queen mattress and now we have a wall to wall bed (ever read The Biggest Bed in the World? Great book

) It worked out really well with him. He always has had his own room and we bought a full size bed for him when he was about 2 or so. We never encouraged him to sleep in it but thought at some point he might want to. Shortly after his baby sister was born he asked to sleep in his bed one night (he was close to 4yo) and he has slept in his bed ever since.

 

[wombat]

How do you know? When your dc goes into his/her room and closes the door on you and says "no, get out, my room".

Honestly that's what my dd did at about 22 mo.

Background - we always coslept. When we moved into a new house, we put a toddler bed in the 2nd br that my MIL had brought for dd. I told dd it was hers and this would be her room but I didn't really expect her to sleep in it. I personally find cosleeping easier. Well she took to it. The 2 yo MINE MINE MINE attitude I guess.

However, this room is across the hallway from our br and I leave a nightlight on so she can come into our bed at anytime during the night. She usually does this about 2-3 am. I just find her in our bed in the morning.

Or lately, she's nearly 2.5 now, the novelty has worn off a bit and she's wanting to start off sleeping in our bed, sometimes she'll stay there all night but sometimes she'll get annoyed at the lack of space (we have a Queen) and just announce she's going to sleep in her bed. On bad nights, she goes back and forth several times before she'll finally go to sleep.

I think all kids are different, just introduce the bed and follow your child's lead. Just beware toddler beds with gaps in the railings - dd would turn sideways and get a leg caught in one and wake up crying because she was stuck. In fact I think CPS are doing a big recall of Graco toddler beds at present. We also have a futon mattress on the floor (no base. Iit was for us to sleep on beside the toddler bed if dd was having a bad night, however dd now chooses to sleep there sometimes too.

 

[Vito's Mommy]

Same exact thing as OP. Ds couldn't find his "space." So I asked him if he would like to have his own bed and we'd put right next to ours. He was all for it. We took him to Baby's R Us and we picked out a bed. Light oak, toddler. ($79) The firetruck one was cool, sure, but the thrill would fade. So we had auntie make him a comforter w/firetrucks and dalmations all over it.(materials ($30) We also let him pick out his own mattress at BRU. That was pretty fun as he got to get each one out and *sample* them. (Sealy $39, very cozy) This was about 1.5 years ago and he still loves his bed. He falls asleep in ours w/us most of the time and jumps up in our bed 1st thing in the am. HTH. :^)

 

[starbarrett]

We moved dd into her own bed at around 8 or 9mo when it was apparent that no one was getting any sleep cosleeping in our queensize bed and the crib just wasn't gonna work. We put a matress on the floor, and slept with her when she woke up in the night. Now we're in the process of leaving her bed rather than convincing her to leave ours. It's nice, actually, and I think it made for a very natural transition.

I'm actually planning on doing this from the get-go with the next baby- getting him his own bed in his own room and sleeping with him there at first. Then as he sleeps better, gradually go back to my own room.

 

[tabitha]

ours our 3 and 1 year old- we figure we will know when we know. yk? (hehe, couldnt resist) what i mean is, if we are wondering, it isnt time. when it is 'time', it will be obvious to us. and it may never be time- i use the word never loosely, of course-

we are 4 of us in a king sized bed. we are comfortable with the babes staying with us as long as they want.

tabitha

 

[babywearingmama]

We also have the wall to wall bed thing (2 queen size mattresses on the floor) and we've just gone from 5 to 4 in there. My oldest decided that the night before he turned 7 he would start sleeping in his own room. Now the 3 year old wants his own room so he can lock his big brother out!

Anyway, you just have to figure out what works for you.