Huge move form our bed to toddler bed

Taking all advice right up front.

We have co-slept with our 18 month old DS since birth.
It is time for him to move.
He sleeps poorly, he takes up most of the king size bed, he kicks and head
butts in his sleep.
That is the obnoxious part.
The sweet part is that he often wants to cuddle in the night, which is great
for a mom that wants him to remain a baby, but I know it's not good for
his sleep habits.

so...this is our plan. He is too big for the crib.(he can climb over the
rail)
We are going to buy him a toddler bed with side rails (typically sold at
Wal-Mart and uses
the crib mattress) and put it in our room.

I have some questions, but I'm also taking advice from anyone who has gone
through
this before.

should we put the bed in our room or his room.
should we let him fall asleep with us then move him?
should we try to make him go to sleep in his bed.

thanks,
jo

I put my son's crib mattress on the floor, next to my mattress (I
didn't have a frame at the time).

before or after he went to sleep?
If he was awake did you refuse to let him on your bed?

"jojo" wrote:

The sweet part is that he often wants to cuddle in the night, which is
great
for a mom that wants him to remain a baby, but I know it's not good for
his sleep habits.

A tangnet: But when is it no longer good for the child's sleep
habits? When are they "supposed" to make the move and why?

I'm curious as to when/why people made the move at the
time that they did. Mine is 26 months and sleeps very well
with us at night. I've heard that 24 months is when they should
move by, but I don't know why, or if it's even true at all.

Any opinions on this issue of current/past co-sleepers
would be of interest to me. Thx.


P. Tierney

"P. Tierney" wrote in message
news:9zq3c.221581$jk2.780298@attbi_s53...

"jojo" wrote:

The sweet part is that he often wants to cuddle in the night, which is
great
for a mom that wants him to remain a baby, but I know it's not good for
his sleep habits.

A tangnet: But when is it no longer good for the child's sleep
habits? When are they "supposed" to make the move and why?

I'm curious as to when/why people made the move at the
time that they did. Mine is 26 months and sleeps very well
with us at night. I've heard that 24 months is when they should
move by, but I don't know why, or if it's even true at all.

Any opinions on this issue of current/past co-sleepers
would be of interest to me. Thx.


P. Tierney



The only reason we are considering it is his poor sleeping habits.
other than the things I mentioned, he also hates covers. He will wake in the
night
and cry if he can't get the covers off. He will always turn sideways between
us and sleep
with his head against my head and his feet against my partners head. (this
puts him above the covers)
or a head kick!! No one is getting sleep anymore.

"jojo" wrote in message
. ..

snip

The only reason we are considering it is his poor sleeping habits.
other than the things I mentioned, he also hates covers. He will wake
in the
night
and cry if he can't get the covers off. He will always turn sideways
between
us and sleep
with his head against my head and his feet against my partners head.
(this
puts him above the covers)
or a head kick!! No one is getting sleep anymore.




Hi Jo,

We had a head kicker as well. It's like sleeping in a washing machine.
While it's on. We moved him out when he was 18 months old and his
sister arrived to take the middle spot. First off, I bought a set of
bunk beds that seperated into two single beds. The bed that's suposed to
be the top bunk came with railings all around it.We set that up hard
against the end of our kingsized so he could sleep seperately, but
couldn't roll off by accident. He could also easily and safely climb
over the railing into our bed whenever he wanted to. If he climbed into
the king, DH would often climb straight into the single, keeping a safe
distance as the head kicking began.

We all slept like that for about a year until his sister turned into a
headkicker too. We then moved DD into the bunk and DS into a
queensized, hard against the wall, with a rail, in his own room. We did
that so that either DH or myself could go in and lay with him when he
woke at night (which he did several times a night). One of us often
lays in with him while he goes to sleep, and it's good to be able to
fall asleep there yourself if you are really tired, or he is sick or
whatever. He's a good sleeper now and we are about to move DD's bunk in
there with him. Once she's good with the move, I'll take the other (non
railed) bunk out of storage for DS and the queen can go back into the
guest room.

IMHO, it is way better to move a co-sleeping toddler into a fullsized
single, rather than a toddler bed, because YOU can squeeze yourself into
the single with them while they go to sleep (esp. in the night), and if
the toddler needs to sleep in the big bed with mommy for any reason,
then dad can pretty much roll right over into the single and go straight
back to sleep with no hassles.

Hope that helps!

Suzie Egg.

jojo wrote:

should we put the bed in our room or his room.
should we let him fall asleep with us then move him?
should we try to make him go to sleep in his bed.

I transitioned my son to his own bed in his own room when he turned 2.
Before that, he'd always coslept and usually nursed to sleep.
The way I made the transition:
-a few nights of me nursing him to sleep in his own bed
-a few nights of me laying next to him until he fell asleep (but no nursing)
-from then on, I put him to bed in his own room and he went to sleep by
himself. The first night, he got up and came right out of his room when I
left - I picked him up and put him back in bed very neutrally, no facial
expression or talking.

Since I was leaving off letting nursing be his main sleep association, I
made sure to have a routine to signal that it was time to go to sleep - a
couple stories, a couple songs, and then a goodnight song that I made up.

--
tristyn
www.tristyn.net

"jojo" wrote in message
. com...
Taking all advice right up front.

We have co-slept with our 18 month old DS since birth.
It is time for him to move.
He sleeps poorly, he takes up most of the king size bed, he kicks and head
butts in his sleep.
That is the obnoxious part.
The sweet part is that he often wants to cuddle in the night, which is
great
for a mom that wants him to remain a baby, but I know it's not good for
his sleep habits.

so...this is our plan. He is too big for the crib.(he can climb over the
rail)
We are going to buy him a toddler bed with side rails (typically sold at
Wal-Mart and uses
the crib mattress) and put it in our room.

I have some questions, but I'm also taking advice from anyone who has gone
through
this before.

should we put the bed in our room or his room.
should we let him fall asleep with us then move him?
should we try to make him go to sleep in his bed.

thanks,
jo


We transitioned a little differently than you, but what I would suggest is
skipping the toddler bed entirely, and putting a single bed in his own room
(with a bed rail). That way one of you can lie down with him if/when he
needs company--and even sleep with him for a while if necessary. I couldn't
handle DS in our bed once I got pregnant, so that's what we did, and when
he'd wake up, DH would go to him and lie down with him . . . sometimes DH
would make it back to our bed, but sometimes he'd just spend the night.
Right around age 2, DS simply stopped waking up at night, except on rare
occasions.

There's a bit of a learning curve involved with a child just climbing out of
bed, but it didn't take DS long to learn that he had to stay there. Of
course, he was moving from crib to bed, so the "threat" of having to sleep
in the crib made him decide to remain in bed. If he's excited about the bed,
it really helps. My father made DS's (and DS got to watch it get put
together, which helped make an event of the whole thing), and it has a
bookshelf at the head. We made a big deal of putting some of his favorite
books and animals on the shelf, and let him pick out sheets. And for
Christmas I made him a comforter. All those special things helped him really
love the bed, and the transition really wasn't too difficult.

hth

--
Jodi
SAHM to Oliver (3 years) & Arwen (10 months)

Put the crib mattress on the floor of your room, so he can get used to
sleeping in a separate bed, but still near you, and once thats
accomplished, move him gradually into his own room where you will have
a new single bed waiting for him. I can't see the purpose of a toddler
bed frame. If you are worried about bed height, you just put the
single bed springs and mattress on the floor with no legs or frame.

Mary G.
Mom of three (coslept with all of them into the preschool years)