thats one thing dh and i never allowed was the kids to sleep in our bed and guess what they have no desire what so ever... they are all good about sleeping in there beds if they need me in the night they call for me i have baby monitors on in there rooms so i can hear..

if the kids are sick and pukey we put up a blow up mattress in the living room with waterproof mattress pad on it and puke bucket and i will sleep on the couch i sure as heck don't let them in my bed lol...don't want to go there..

its gonna be tough but i say pick a method and stand firm he will get the idea it just may be a few sleepless nights. yeh he is only 2 but 2 year olds are not dumb and do know how to manipulate parents so don't let the age fool you children are very resourceful..

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My girls never slept with us. I tried co-sleeping when they were nursing and they didn't like it. They liked being in their own cozy crib or bed.

Is there anything you can do to encourage him to sleep in his room.. like get a tent bed or something to get him used to sleeping in there.

I'm not a heavy sleeper and DH & I don't drink so that's not a problem...

I'm still unsure as what to do. I know what I NEED to do... I just really don't WANT to do it. Funny how life is like that. We're currently in the process of painting the master bedroom. We're going to put our mattress in the nursery (his room) until the fumes dissipate. Maybe that will help him get used to sleeping in there and then we'll get the twin bed for him to sleep in. I know it may take a while for him to get used to it but I also know that it needs to happen.

Thanks for your help with this everyone. I really appreciate everyone's input.

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Can you move him to his bed after he is asleep? My DD (will be 5 tomorrow) used to get into bed with us every night, DH works out of town a lot so its usually just me. She was a little over 3 before we were able to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep in her own bed. We changed our bedtime routine to reading a story in her bed before we tucked her in instead of the in the rocking chair downstairs. She would usually fall asleep before the story was over.

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DS-16
DD-12
DD-5
DS-2

We have dd#3's toddler bed in our room close to my side of the bed. We have it here b/c when we tried moving her out of the crib into her bed in her sisters room it did not work at all. Both girls want to stay up and play with each other and she won't stay in her bed. Hopefully when we move to our next house and she has her own room that won't be a problem!!
I have to sit on the floor next to her bed to get her to lay in it and stay there though. (she's 2) Most nights she climbs up with me around 3 in the morning or so. I'm too lazy and tired and exhausted to constantly move her back and when I try she just wakes up and cries and cries. So it's much easier to let her stay in bed from 3/4 until I wake up at 7. Bad habit, yep I know, but I hate crying. However, since I've been pregnant we have been working with her to hopefully get her to stay in her bed longer, have moved her bed further from me and hope to get her ready for the baby being in the co-sleeper. There is no easy way, it's quite tiring to constantly move her back, especially since it's getting harder and harder for me to sit on the floor next to her for 30+ minutes. But I know we have to get it done!

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I definitely agree with this. Time out should be somewhere other than his bed and make his bed a place he can look forward to rather than absolutely dread! I love the sheet and night light idea. Maybe even a book. However, I think you said your DS is only 2, so, that may be a little tricky.

We ended up getting a little pull out sofa that we keep in the living room and DS, whenever he is tired, just pulls it out himself and lays down and falls asleep, we end up having to take him up to his crib, but, he's not in our bed!

He did sleep with us until about 5 months ago. For a while we kept him in a pack n play in our bedroom.

Maybe at the very least, as part of a bedtime routine, take him in his room to read him a book before bedtime to get used to his 'big boy' sleep space. and if he is still in your bed at night, if you wake up in hte middle of the night, take him over to his bed so that he wakes up in the morning in his bed, and I liked the idea about putting a gate up at teh doorway too. But, i guess if he is a light sleeper, that might not work.

I would just try anything to get him used to that space in a POSITIVE way and you have to stay consistent and try something a few nights in a row. That's probably why super nanny is as successful as she is, bc she is consistent with what she does. No exceptions!

Good luck and keep us posted. We may move DS (20 months old) into a big boy bed soon bc we want to get over that hurdle before the new baby comes and takes over his crib! haha...so, i'll probably be in a similar situation soon! Good thing these kids do eventually grow up bc I couldn't take some of these stages lasting forever! haha

I have the same issue here. I can get my 3 year old to sleep on her own in her bed but she faithfully gets up in the middle of the night (every night) to climb in our bed. Even tho we have a king size bed, she's a snuggler so I wind up with almost no space. I've about had it but I have no idea how to control it.

I thought about putting a gate in the doorway so she can't get out of her room but I know she'll scream and wake the entire house. There's no "good" time to do it so I'm sure I'll have to suck it up eventually just do it.

Boy, this sleep stuff is brutal. How come kids can't come with an instruction manual?!?

I am not really a big fan of co-sleeping unless the kids were really sick and I just wanted them close. DS is 21mo old and had been running a fever for several days and during that time he slept in our bed. Once he felt better, I had to retrain him to sleep in his crib. It took a couple of nights of him crying it out before he started back to sleeping in his own bed.

DD will be 5 in Aug and still comes to our room many a nights. We use to let her climb into bed with us, but it was getting kind of tight. Now we have a sleeping bag and pillow laid out next to my side of the bed. We've told her if she needs to come into our room at night, she has to sleep in the sleeping bag. It works out really well. I figure, eventually, she'll grow out of it.

I have six children and number 7 on the way. Some of them slept through the night early some still wake up. We have to many kids in each room to let them cry and wake up the rest. And dh never let me let them cry anyways. I tried a crib mattress on the floor next to my bed with one of them and it worked. When the next baby was almost due we got him a twin bed and I lay down with him til he falls asleep. Sometimes he will still come and gently wake me and ask me "to seep with me". Every parent is different and every child is different. I pray you find something that will work for both of ya'll or all three of ya'll. My sixth one still sleeps my bed because I havent gotten him his own bed. It is hard cause he turns sideways and kick dh in the head sometimes. Ouch! But is a small 3 bdrm house we just have to make do. Good luck and God Bless.

We are a very AP family. Our dd's were in bed with us from day 1 and it's been that way ever since. We have a 5yr old and a 3 yr old and now my pregnant self along with poor dh being squished. My 3 yr old rarely will sleep on her own through the night. She will either begin in her room, then go to her sister or the floor in our room next to the bed. It has her favorite comforter, pillows, nightlight and some of her toys there. Or she will jump up on our bed scoot right in the covers and goes to sleep. Our 5 yr old is the same way. She will begin the night in her bed then move to our bed. She hasn't done it for the past few nights so I'm not sure if she's going through a phase or what not but she enjoy sleeping with us and getting cuddles. Just lastnight my 5yr old came out of her room and found me and dh on the sofa watching our tv program and asked to cuddle. She cuddled up with me and within 5 min was out. We then moved her to her bed and she's still there sleeping this morning.

We enjoy this bond we have with our children and have no need at this time to remove it as it's all they've known since birth. When this new baby comes we'll be adding the guest bedroom's bed into our room next to our queen size bed and making it at a large BED in our "bed"room. We've had my niece stay overnight with us and she's 4 months old and we all co-slept with her just fine. The only reason my sister had me watch her overnight vs. anyone else is because she said no one else knows how to co-sleep with a baby and she knew she could trust our family.

I hope you find a solution mama. We tell other's that look at us nuts that it's our parenting style that we enjoy and we all get the best sleep this way.

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