My toddler is a lovely child. I spend a lot of time with them, I lovingly refer to them as my permanent companion. I cannot step outside for a cigarette without them coming out with me. No problem, but at some point I'd like to transition them to their own bed. They sleep in ours every single night, and generally sleep much better in there and for longer.
Has anyone transitioned a kid to their own bed after a long time of co sleeping? They don't fall asleep on their own yet and I lay with them until they fall asleep, but if I try in their room it's tears until we're back in the big bed.
When ours was around this age, we set up a toddler bed in our room, and once they were soundly asleep in our bed, we would carry them to their bed. For the first few months, they'd wake up and climb into bed with us at some point during the night, but eventually they were staying in their bed the whole night. I'm coming up absolutely blank on how we transitioned to falling asleep in their own bed and moving to their own room, I think that involved a lot of negotiations and making their room cooler than ours (colorful rainbow and stars nightlight, fun blankets, etc).
As snuggly as it was to share sleep, I do not miss getting kicked by tiny legs all night, and I hope you get some quality, solitary rest soon.
Oh, this is a good idea. I could set up a bed in our room pretty easily, even dolled up a bit. There's nights when I love it with them in bed, but yeah, toddler feet in my face all night can be tiring.
Hoping the falling asleep on their own eventually just happens. I know they do it at daycare (praise those ladies for teaching my kids those skills), so it's possible.
We didn't do much co-sleeping, but I guess I'll still chime in because it's a small comm and this anecdote may fit some stage of your process
At the toughest point of our sleep training, I had to force myself not to intervene in an attempt until 20 minutes had passed. I felt like a worthless baby-betraying monster, but somewhere around the 17 minute mark they would usually fall asleep until morning. When they didn't, I'd go check their diaper, pick them up, offer any leftover portion of their bedtime bottle, tell them a story, and try again. It never actually went past attempt #2 without working, but your mileage will absolutely vary because we're talking about toddlers here
Yeah our first slept with us until ~2.5. Started by having him do naps in his own bed with me sitting there. (This was during covid lockdowns). Then it was me sleeping with him at night and gradually transitioning into him getting to sleep without me being in the room. Really liked the book It’s Never Too Late to Sleep Train.
