[jennchsm]

DS is 15 months, and we've been happily sleeping together all along. I am totally prepared to cosleep as long as DS wants/needs it, and DH is totally on board.

In the last couple of months, DS has been very restless at night, thrashing around in his sleep and scooting around in the bed between DH and me. I chalked it up to his learning to walk, and didn't think much more about it until DH went on a 2-week-long business trip and DS and I had the king-sized bed all to ourselves.

For these last two weeks, DS has been sleeping stretched out on DH's side, blissfully still. He doesn't snuggle on me any more, and doesn't seem to need to be in physical contact with me to go to sleep. He wakes up a couple of times to nurse, but then rolls over and scoots a little distance away to sleep again. I'm a little sad about it, but I have to say this is the best sleep I've gotten in months!

I've started putting him down in a crib sidecarred to our bed at night, and he's fine until about midnight, when he wants to sleep with me again. (He still sleeps a distance away and doesn't snuggle.) I haven't yet tried putting him back in the crib after nursing him overnight, as I'm planning to take this very slowly. I'm in no hurry to get him out of our bed, and I realize that it still might be a long time before he sleeps on his own all night. But if this is a window of opportunity, I'd like to take advantage of it. We're starting to think about having another baby in the next couple of years, and it would just make things so much easier if he moves to his own bed without the added pressure of a new sibling on the way.

Is this just a fluke, or is it really the beginning of the end of our cosleeping? Any advice from someone who's BTDT?

 

[kim.mpls]

My 9 month old started doing some of the same "squirming" and kicking/thrashing, especially after her late morning (3-4 am) nursing. We'd had her in a co-sleeper alongside me for several months, and just started putting her down in her own crib in her own room recently. Then when she wakens to nurse, I bring her in and co-sleep in bed.

But lately she only seems to settle when she can stretch out flat on her back without snuggling. So if DH got up early, I can scoot her over in bed and we both sleep well. Otherwise I put her back in her co-sleeper (I'm too lazy to go back to her room with her to put her back in her crib). So she sleeps on her tummy in her crib in her own room from 8pm-ish til 3 am, then with us or in our room til 6 or 7.

It's working for us so far. Plus when she wakes up, I just pull her back into bed, give her some toys, and let her crawl all over us

It's a pretty fun way to wake up!

 

[jmmom]

I haven't moved my 2yo ds to his own bed yet, but we did expand our sleep surface at about 18 months so that he could have more space to sleep - it was obvious that he wanted to move away from me and be in his own space, and he hated bumping into dh as he did that. I think that when he does start sleeping in his own bed - a twin futon right next to our queen futon - it will be a pretty easy transition.

Since you're not pregnant yet, you do have plenty of time - and transitioning directly to a toddler bed, set next to yours, might be the easiest thing, especially since you can still move over to nurse him if he needs it.

 

[srs]

We put DD's crib mattress on the floor next to ours a few months ago. She loves it and so do we. It's a good first step when you or your LO want the space but you still want them closer than their own room.