Topic : Where Should Your Child Sleep?

i am hoping that someone will have some advice for me. I have a 2 and half year girl who insists on sleeping with her  Dad and I. She has her own bed in her own bedroom  and will start off sleeping in her bed but then about 1am she will toddle into our bed. I have tried taking her back into her bed with much protesting, screaming and crying. it is incrediably frustrating and tiring. any thoughts? I have been told that it takes up to 3 days for the child and adult to get used to the new situation, is there any painless way of keeping her in her room?

Regards Lilleigh

Just put a gate at her door and when she wakes up and cry's and yells, just ingnore her and she will fall asleep after a while, and yes it will take a couple of day's of not sleeping, but that is better than her sneeking in your bed for months!!!!!

If the gate does not work, just keep on putting her to bed, even if it takes hours and hours, just get up, take her by the hand and bring her back to bed, yes, even if you have to do it until it is 5 in the morning, do this without talking, no talking !! this is very important, if you talk to her, you are giving her attention, and I'm sure that at 4 in the morning it will not be the nice talk, it will be tired talking wich will be negative attention, so no talking, I will garante you, you do this and it will not take to long that her waking up at night will stop,

good luck

it all depends on the people, I had both my boys co-sleep with us, and it was great!! We enjoyed it, when we would wake in the morning, I LOVED opening my eyes and seing him there with a HUGE smile on his face, it started my day on the right foot!!!! :o)

When came the time for him to go in his bed, I had no problemes what so ever!! He went from his crib to a captains bed when he was 17 months old. never got out! That one surprised even me!!!! lol

with my second, I did the same thing and loved it just as much. But he was a bit harder to get him to sleep in his own bed,  but  there was no real fighting or crying, he would wake up at night and come and crawn in with us, and I let him, but he slept so bad, we would get kneed and elbowed and pushed out of the bed, t'il one day I said he would sleep on the side, not in the middle, he fell once on the floor, that's it, he did not want to sleep with us anymore(of course I had put some blankets to soften his fall!!!)

They are now 8 and 5, the youngest will sometimes wake up at night and come and see me, kiss me and go back to bed, or he will ask if he can sleep with us, sometimes I will say yes, sometimes I will say no, and when I say no, he goes back to his bed!!!

I try to be as consistent as possible with them, by doing this all the time they know how far mommy will go, and not push farther!!

So it's all about what you do and how you do it, we all have diffrent point of veiws, and this is the place to let them be known!!

Mélissa

My newborn- who is now 16 weeks old slept very well at night, usually from 10pm until 7am from 5 weeks until now (due to teething). We had the same problem with her sleeping during the day. It took us a month to get her used to sleeping in certain places, Now, she will only sleep in her crib at night and will only nap in her swing or on our bed during the day and even then sometimes we have to lay with her for a minute to get her to sleep.  my only suggestion is to watch where she sleeps best, even if it's not for long then stick to that place. :)

We are the parents of 7 happy well adjusted children (24 - 5 yrs old).  We have used the family bed.  This is what seemed to work best for us.  I don't say it is for everyone but for us our whole family slept best this way.  We have used only one queen bed, side car bed, toddler bed, twin bed next to ours, sleeping bags on floor.   Whatever seemed to work with the amount of children

who needed to be in our room.   I don't believe there is only ONE way for a family to get

their much needed rest.  I think you should open your hearts and minds to what works best for

everyone.  Just find a solution that everyone gets the best nights rest possible.

Family Bed by Tine Thevin is a great book and also Good Nights by Dr. Jay Gordon helped so much!

Happy sleeping!

I have always had my children in their own beds.

I have 2 girls now 11 and 6; even when I breast fed them in the early months of their life they were in a bassinet. I could blame it on paranoia of smothering them and hearing stories of my friends having a hard time getting their kids in their own rooms. I knew I didn't want to deal with those consequences later.

I believe our adult bed is our sanctuary and our source of privacy which as you all know is hard to find after having children and when you mix the two your relationship struggles also.

Now, when an occasional storm or a case of the upset stomach happens I also offer comfort to them by allowing that special consideration of snuggling w/ us.

My son is now 2 1/2 years old. From the night I had him he has slept in bed with me, except for staying overnight at his grandparents. I started doing it because I was so worried about him during the night. Now he just cuddles with me. He can't go to sleep unless he is twirling my hair or has his little arm around my neck. I know when the time comes, he will be ready to sleep in his own bed, but will I? LOL My mom and dad divorced when I was 2. My younger brother & I both slept with my mom until we were older. My mom remarried when I was 4 and my was 2. I now have 2 more brothers, a 17 & 7 year old. The 17 year old slept with my mom & dad until the baby was born. Now he sleeps with my parents. Even now if my dad isn't home, both my brothers will sleep with my mom. I know it sounds weird that a 17 year old would sleep in bed with his mom & brother but we are a close family. I'm 23 now & when I'm sick or whatever I would love to be in my moms bed. I think its more of a comfort thing. . . .