Reclaiming my bed.
Alison will be four in June and she still does not sleep through the night in her own bed. In fact, she will ask to sleep in ours almost every night. She was a co-sleeping baby, and has never as far as I can remember spent an entire night in her own bed. But she’s growing fast and it’s getting more and more uncomfortable to squeeze three people in a king-size bed. Ally is a steam-roller and likes to cuddle close to me, which means I get precious little space, and even less quality shut-eye.
I think it’s time to train her to sleep in her own room, in her own bed. Through the night. I’ll be picking up Elizabeth Pantley’s book to see if she’s got any useful tips. I have the baby version of the book, and it did offer some practical advice which I tried on Alison but subsequently abandoned because it was too difficult to keep waking up to deal with her sleep issues.
According to this article, it’s good for a toddler to learn to do so, to help them feel better about their burgeoning independence. With a new baby on the way, however, I’m not so sure if Alison will take well to being told that she can’t share Mom’s and Dad’s bed anymore especially if Number Two shares our bed. Ah, the dilemmas of parenting!
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POSTED IN: Practicalities
4 opinions for Reclaiming my bed.
Deb L
May 16, 2006 at 11:08 am
Good luck with this! Do what you’ve gotta do, and to hell with the people who inevitably (no matter what method you use) will tell you how wrong and horrible ‘method x’ is. ;) In the end, you love your kid, and she’ll be able to sleep well, and so will you.
Babylune » Nice to Know
May 18, 2006 at 5:40 am
[...] For the co-sleepers among us who are feeling the need to actually stretch out and relax in bed, Inside Motherhood has been looking for a way to reclaim the bed too. [...]
Kellys
May 18, 2006 at 6:03 am
I will be watching your SUCCESS(because there will be) to see how to do it myself. My 13 mo little girl makes it half way through the night and then ends up in our bed. My girlfriend says that they eventually end up in their bed. They have 4 kids and have been very successful. Let’s see howyou and I do. Good luck!
Christina
May 19, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Good luck! Pantley has some great suggestions, including making a book about successful nights in her own bed, beginning with her night time routine and ending with her sleeping through the night in her own bed.
As an alternative to what she might perceive as ‘banishment’, could she have a little mattress near your bed, so that she could come in and sleep in your room, but not crowd you out of your bed?
My son at four months kicked us out of our bed, with his feet in his papa’s face and his breath in mine. it’s so hard to sleep with them, no matter how wonderful it is.
Christina
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