Need some ideas-

[Novella]

Since we have had Ella home, Joshua has exerted his need for reconnection with us by sleeping nearly ON either me or my DH. Now, it wouldn't be so bad if:

A) he were an infant and not 30 pounds
b) there wasn't an infant already in the bed with us
C) My husband and I were smaller people and the bed had more room.

I have yet to get Ella to sleep in the co-sleeper so there really insn't enough room in the bed anymore for all of us!

My DH and I were BOTH up at 5AM with our son in our bed sound asleep. Why were we awake? He had woken us BOTH up and taken up the whole bed.

We both agree that what we are doing isn't working. Something has to change. Neither of us mind Joshua being in the room as long as he stays on his matress. But, him being in the bed with the rest of us isn't working for the family. (DH is 6'2 and ~300lb... I am 5'10 and 200lb.... and DH is an officer and has to sleep to perform well at work)

I thought that perhaps I could do a reward chart with cool stickers for every night that he sleeps on his matress. Do you think that would work?

We are at our wits end and need some solutions that would work for the whole family.

Thanks!
Cindy

[joyful mama]

that might work :think. we are in a similar boat and need to make a change, too. :think

[Ima LeShalosh]

We have used nickels instead of stickers for DS when he was that young. Kids love money and they love to see it grow and a nickel wont break the bank. We would simply buy rolls of nickels and keep them at hand for every accomplishment that we were requiring of him. He loved to save his money for Chevron Cars. In order to keep him from being bored with the saving part, we snuck in some of our quarters and silver dollars so that he could buy his first car himself quickly. That kept him from getting discouraged (the cars are 7-10 bucks a pop) and kept him interested in earning his nickels! The first time he got to plop down his change for the car you would have thought he had just bought Disney World :giggle I snuck a note to the cashier and told her to put the change in a brown bag and handed her a $10 bill so that I would not have to go out and buy new nickels :mrgreen

Just an idea:)

[Novella]

What a cool idea! :yes Do you think a 2 year old (29 months) would get that concept? He's a bright boy-- but I am not sure how much he comprehends about money and what it is for.

[Havilah]

Rather than pushing ds out right as the new baby came, we opted for dh to sleep in the other bedroom with ds, and I stayed in the "family" bed with our newborn. This has worked well for us and everyone sleeps much better... but I do have a dh who is 200% on board with cosleeping and really enjoys his time with ds. We also have a third bedroom available for couple time ;)

[Ima LeShalosh]

I think so...our 2yo has a piggie bank already and LOVES to get coins to put into his bank