Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

C will be 4 at the beginning of September. She very rarely sleeps through the night.

She coslept in our queen bed with us full time until she was 2, then we started having her begin the night in her own bed most nights. She generally wakes up and wanders in our room and climbs in bed with us. She tends to toss, turn, kick, etc. in her sleep so it feels like she takes up a lot of room. There's not a lot of room to begin with because DH is 6'2" and over 300 pounds. We have Z in a bassinet next to the bed but I do a lot of side-lying nighttime nursing and generally fall asleep that way, and so he really spends the majority of the night in bed with me.

For the past year or so, we've been trying to encourage C to sleep on a mattress on our floor when she comes in our room. That generally works for the first wake-up. Then she'll wake up again an hour or so later and climb up in our bed again. She prefers to be up at the top with us but when I was pregnant she started finding space down by our legs.

No matter how many times we move her down to the mattress, it seems she will always wake up a short while later and climb back in our bed.

Sometimes DH gets fed up and moves to C's twin bed or to the couch, but he won't accept that as an ongoing solution.

Short of buying a king sized bed (which I've been suggesting as a solution), what else could we try to help her stay on her own sleep surface?

Or is there another solution I'm overlooking?

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

:popcorn

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

You're going to hate this....

1)time and maturity on her part. She will not be sleeping in your bed on her honeymoon (or even in college!)

2)Every time she wakes you up in a spot you don't want her to be in, you can move her. :yes

3)a king size bed is AWESOME! :rockon


:yawn:yawn:yawn:yawn:yawn I know really, I do. :hug

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

I think I might for now move her twin in and sidecar that so she still has her own surface and isnt being jostled or kicking anyone and isnt disturbing you with her movements.Its not going backwards - they go thru different stages and needs and the point is for everyone to get as much sleep as possible

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

1) that's what I kind of figured....
2) we do move her sometimes and other times it's not worth waking up enough to move her
3) I know! I sooooo want one. I hope DH's job situation becomes more stable soon so he feels like we can afford it... I think that's his last hesitaiton

I'll look into whether her twin would fit in our room or not. The mattress we have for her on our bedroom floor at the foot of our bed is from a porta-crib.

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

ditto to the others.

JD goes to sleep with us, we move him to his bed with a night light on, and somewhere between 12-6am, he rejoins us on some nights. IF we wake up, and IF he is asleep solidly, he gets moved back. If not, DH gets up at 6, and I'm up between 7-8 (except while kindergarten is out) so he can stay in our bed.

TB does this also. He falls asleep with us or in his own bed, and joins us in the morning. When he's old enough and doesn't have the need - he'll stop on his own.

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

Last night was a rough one. C came in crying. We tried to calm her down and get her settled to sleep, but everything we did riled her up more. She was trying to ask for something but because of the crying we couldn't understand what and she got more and more frustrated at not being understood and about us doing the "wrong" thing.

This morning I asked her about it and she said she wanted a different pillow...

Re: Almost 4 night waking and sleep location
 

:hug

JD just joined us in bed. It's not quite 5am... he had to go pee. (hey! progress on that front!) and he's out again...