Hi all,
My 17 months old son has been ill with an ear infection, throat infection and to top it all off, he has been teething as well (2nd molars). We all got through it find, just the tail end of it now, BUT during this time he became quite clingy (which is understandable), only thing is he just wouldn't stay in his cot and spent 10 days and still counting, sleeping in with us. He has gotten so use to sleeping in with us that by about 2am he has woken and will not settle again until he is put in between Daddy and I. We just don't know how to break the habit....Any Advice.
There's really no easy way around this - toddlers at that age believe that their needs are the only ones that exist, and that everyone sees the world as they do. I guess what it comes down to is: who makes the rules in the house? The parents or the kids?
I remember going through this with Christine when she was that young, it broke my heart to listen to her yell at night when I left her in her cot, but for my own sanity (and my relationship with my husband) I just couldn't let her sleep in with us anymore. It came about the same way, she had a bad patch when she couldn't settle at night, so I took her into bed with us.
I seem to remember trying to move her once she was asleep, but the moment we laid her down in her cot she woke up again and complained. The only way we worked through it was with perseverance, and leaving her to get to sleep on her own.
Being a parent is such fun sometimes, huh? The thing to keep in mind is that in a couple of weeks they will have forgotten all about this, and that it isn't going to scar them.
Karen,
I went through a similar thing with my son (who is now 11.5 months), where he became very used to sharing the bed with us, and then for his night sleeps he just would keep waking up in his cot until we put him in bed with us again.
We decided to try and get him used to sleeping in his cot again by doing them in stages, so first we bought his cot in our room and put it next to our bed, with one of the sides taken off (so it was like an extension of our bed) This was just to get him used to the cot again. Then the next stage was to put the side back on the cot so he would get used to that. The only thing we havent tackled yet is moving the cot back into his own room... we feel a bit sad about doing it, as we love his company, and he loves being with us, so we are just going to take our time with that. But having the cot next to the bed definately gives us more space rather than all sharing a bed...
Goodluck with everything!
Ambah has a good idea it its that bad by bringing the cot into your room.
DD only comes into our bed when she is feverish so i can keep an eye on her, just like yourself. And i found that if she got over her illness but still wanted our bed then id wait until she was sound asleep then pick her up and put her back to bed. She soon got back into sink.
Makes it a bit hard with a cot though cause its awkward. We put DD in a bed when she was 22 months so she could have more room to spread. As the other kerrie said to though is who is the boss?
I tell Dd that her bed is so groovy and its especially for her. She falls for that. Good luck with it. Its never easy when it comes to kids night sleeps.
Sleeping Between Mummy & Daddy.....
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