Bed/Sleep issues

[KrystalS]

DD is 4.5, she has always been a great sleeper, never had issues there. We coslept until she was 2 and then started to transition to her own bed. She falls asleep in her bed fine but she always comes to my bed at some point during the night. I usually don't even wake up when she gets in the bed so its not like I can take her back to her own bed. I usually don't even know shes there until I wake up in the morning. Honestly, it doesn't bother me, I don't mind her sleeping with me. But it drives DH crazy. He thinks its ridiculous that shes almost 5 and doesn't stay in her own bed. Part of it is my fault, DH is in the army so hes usually gone for training every few weeks and hes been deployed twice, so DD always sleeps with me when hes gone.
So does anyone have any tips or tricks for keeping DD in her bed? I've asked her why she gets out of bed and she just says she woke up and couldn't go back to sleep or she was scared of the dark, had a dream, etc.

[hillview]

I have offered DS #1 a cookie if he stays in his bed til 6 am. So far it works. I can't say that this is the IDEAL parenting thing I had planned but it works and I get to sleep. You could also go with stickers etc. (DS is ONLY motivated by cookies it seems).

DS hasn't co slept since he was 6 months old so slightly different -- his issue was getting up repeatedly in the evening post being put to bed and/or getting up at 5 am :nono:

Mama needs her sleep here :)

/hillary

[sarahsthreads]

DD1 had gotten into the habit of coming into our bed every night too (she coslept until 6 months). We tried, in the months leading up to DD2's birth, to encourage her to sleep in her own bed, with very little success. (Honestly, that might have been because I didn't want to lose that special snuggle time with her either...)

The first night we were home with the baby, there were a lot of tears all around. DH explained to DD1 that she really couldn't sleep in our bed for *right now* and that the best way she could be helpful was to get a good night's sleep *in her own bed* so she could help me out during the day. This really worked for her because her primary goal in life at the moment is to be "allowed" to help with whatever I'm doing.

Now she's been sleeping in her bed probably 9 nights out of 10 - she occasionally has a nightmare or is frightened by the weather outside and comes running into our room, which is perfectly fine with me. I want her to know that we're always here when she needs us!

If we'd needed it, I know a sticker chart would have helped too. Somehow she went from pooping in her pull-up every night to *never* doing it when we bribed her with the promise of "a barbie with all the stuff" once she filled up the sticker chart.

Good luck! Luckily DH is super tolerant of kids in the bed, because I think it's a lot harder when one parent is OK with it and the other is not.

Sarah :)