Does/Did anyone here co-sleep with a 2 1/2 year old

[NEVE three BUGS and a BEE]

and when I say co-sleep I mean in your bed!!!!

So we get thru many things here by saying "they won't go off to college doing it..."

OK I am now officially not certain...
I think Tristan will go off to college with me in tow so he can sleep with me and roll over on me and the second I lift my head to move a cat off my heat totally roll over on my pillow etc...

I think he will go off to college with a binkie in his mouth...I mean he takes it from a crying baby!!!!!!

I think he will go off to college taking a baby bottle to the local keg party...or worse yet while his future bride is registering for Waterford he will have Dr Brown's Bottles on the list.

Anyway how did you break them from the sleeping - IF YOU DID...

Tristan lets us tuck him in upstairs, says goodnight like we are the Waltons to his brothers lets us go thru the whole routine and while we are high fiving and planning friskiness hopping down the stairs he is a few steps behind us wobbling like ET...

I have well passed the window of opportunity I think...
I am doomed to have Tristan sleep with us forever I suspect...

Edited to add when Steve is out of town I kid you not I have Tristan and Bronwyn in the bed with me...REichen and Karsh sleeping to my left on the floor in a fort they made (and sometimes in the bed depending what they want)...three dogs on the ground...and two cats in the bed.
So 10 warm hearts are all in one room!!!!!

[kensjen]

hehe, your post cracked me up a bit, especially registering for waterford and dr brown's...LOL

But really, he will not sleep with you forever. In fact, I imagine someday soon you will miss your little man sleeping with you and will go look in his room several times a night wistfully...which is what I do. I so miss Jonah in our bed, even though now we all sleep much better. He just decided one day he wanted out, and I suspect that will happen with Tristan as well.

I say enjoy them while they are so little, they grow up too fast. I LOVE the way you said, "10 warm hearts are all in one room"! Really, that is family!! :)


(I know that wasn't all helpful, but I think you are doing it all right!! Your children are so happy!)

[bluej]

Caden slept with us until he was 4 1/2. What got him out of the bed? Having Ryden. He didn't choose to leave then, but he was kicked out b/c we planned on co-sleeping with Ryden (I know, we are such cold parents). After a month of that we decided Ryden wasn't the co-sleeping type so we moved him to his own room and guess who decided that meant he could come back to our bed? Yep, Caden moved back in! It didn't last long though, after a week and a half he volunteered to go back to his own room. So don't fear, he will eventually leave your bed, although it may be awhile yet.

And I'm sorry, but I had to laugh about T taking binkies from crying babies!

[cvharris]

We coslept with Ben in our bed for 18 months until he became such an active sleeper that none of us were getting sleep. I was also still nursing at the time and it was a bit too tempting for him to want to nurse everytime he woke up - I was nursing too often at night. We ended up moving him to his own room with Dad sitting in there for moral support and there was a lot of crying involved for the first few days (not sure how much of the crying was missing our bed vs. missing the proximity to my boobs!), but it became better after that. I thought he was not the type of kid who would just decide not to sleep with us anymore - he's such a snuggler and I honestly believed he would never decide to leave on his own accord, so that is why we did what we did.

Now he sleeps in a twin bed in the nursery. He knows that is where he sleeps and happily gets into the bed when it is naptime or bedtime. After our bedtime routine, I still need to hold his hand until he drifts to sleep but he stays in the bed all night. Sometimes he will wake and call out for us and want one of us to climb into bed with him for a couple of hours before he wakes up for the day. I found that after I purchased the snug tuck pillow, that somewhat alleviated this problem - now he snuggles up to the pillow like it is a real person and doesn't seem to be asking for us as much.

If you do decide to move him to his own room, I think if you decorated the bed with a cool theme that Tristan would like that could help. We're going to move Ben out of the nursery into his own room soon and I'm doing an airplane theme since he seems to love airplanes.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Carolee
Mama to Ben (6/03)
It's a BOY! Baby brother due 12/18/05

[Tondi G]

LOL... I wish I had the answer for you! Mason just turned FOUR and is still in our bed!

He was sleeping at least part of the night in his own bed but when we moved Aidan to their room when he was 8 weeks we started letting Mason sleep with us again at night! We are hoping that when Aidan is a bit more consistent with sleep we will attempt to get Mason back in his bed! For now DH and I have decided it won't last forever and our big guy is growing so fast.... it's the last bit of baby he has left in him... wanting to sleep with mom and dad! There is nothing like those cuddles!!!

~Tondi
Mommy to Mason 7/8/01 and Aidan 5/4/05

[bnme]

Sometimes they really DO seem too just stop these things when they are ready. My 2.5 year old just started sleeping in his own bed about 1 month ago. We moved in early July and prior to the move had been telling him 'at the new house your going to have a new room and you can sleep in your big boy bed'. We planned on transitioning him as soon as we moved - but then we decided it could be too stressful for him and us - and just couldn't commit to HOW we would do it (CIO, constant back and forth, etc). One night my DH was carrying him down the hall to bed and he said "I want to sleep in Jason's big boy room tonight". DH tucked him in there and he has been sleeping alone ever since! We do stay with him until he falls asleep (usually less than 10 minutes).

He was also a die-hard binky-boy and gave it up similarly. I had began talking to him about giving it up, never making an effort to cut him back or anything (because the few times I tried he threw absolute fits). One day I noticed he hadn't had it 'clipped' on for half the day and hadn't asked for it. I just tucked them all away and, I kid you not, he never asked for it again. I have one saved for a shadowbox I keep meaning to make, its such a 'part' of his babyhood.

I never stressed much about him having that, or the bottle. I always felt he was a baby and couldn't deprive him of his comfort by forcing it away. (But I did sometimes feel outside pressures to have him give it up). I know I was lucky that he gave them up so easily and before he was much older, but it is possible. And as long as it is not something that is stressing you or that you want to end they will stop when they are ready.

..ANd what a sweet pic you painted of '10 in a bed' - those are the times you will cherish forever.

[wagner36]

Charlie still sleeps with me. He goes to bed in his own room, but he's conditioned to wake up at like 12:00 and come into bed with me. I say "me" because Charlie kicks DH in the head (drop kicks with the heel - ouch!) or tells him "No dada, no sleep in big blue bed (our sheets are blue - charlie gets so mad when we change to a different color), this bed is me bed and mama bed." I feel kind of bad for DH, but he's 6'4", and Charlie's 3'4", so I much prefer sleeping with the smaller of the two!

There have been a few nights lately where he will sleep in his own bed until between 5 and 7 am, so that's good. I miss sleeping with him on those mornings, but I also like to sleep with DH. I work a lot, so I love cuddling up with Charlie at night. He kisses me in that groggy state and it is so sweet...

[zuzu]

I love your description of 10 warm hearts! We have only five (me, DH, Sarah and two snuggly cats) but sometimes I do wonder if we'll ever have our bed back.

We're not at the point of kicking out Sarah yet, but we did get her her own bed and pack up the big-waste-of-$-for-us crib a few weeks ago. We've been trying to get her more used to spending time in her new bed, and started out by reading bedtime stories there. So far, she has been fine with the stories, but then says, "Now's time to go to sleep in the other bed," and we all go back into our room. I think it's going to be a slow process, and because we're all still sleeping well (most nights) this way, we're not going to rush it.

As for the binky, it's still with us while Sarah falls asleep and on longer car rides. She is good at limiting its use to those times, though I'm very tempted to try to get rid of it all together. We may wait until she has moved to her own bed though - I can't imagine taking away two sources of comfort at once.

Sorry, no real advice. Just know you're not the only one with a full bed.

Melissa, mom to Sarah (5/03)

[ismommy]

neve,
gunner is still with us but bella is out and snuggles in the morning. i love the 10 hearts imagery. we have 7:)
and i dont think i have said how much i love your family wall!
Helene
mommy to Isabella
and Gunner
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif

[trumansmom]

Truman was 3 1/2 before we finally got him out of our bed. It was slow going, but he's in his room for the entire night now! To the point that if he wakes up and is scared, he'll just sit there and scream for us instead of coming into our room!

It's kind of amazing. :)

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04
Independent Consultant, Do-Re-Me & You!

[votre_ami03]

Hee hee! Neve, great post!

Nolan is 25 mos old today & still sleeps with momma. I told myself last night I was going to move hime to his bed, but I didn't. I think it's as much me as it is him who doesn't want him to go.


Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030722/1/7/2/-7/.png