DD has been co sleeping with me since she was born , never took to the cot! even for her day sleeps i have to lay down with her for her to fall to sleep.
Today i have moved the cot out of my room and put the cot mattress next to my bed as im wanting her to get use to sleeping there by herself. the thing is she wont sleep for long periods of time on it, its only been one day but even before as soon as she realises im not next to her she wakes up and starts to cry. How do i stop this cycle in a positive way for her and for me.
Today she went down at for 20 min, woke up layed back down slept another 5 min then woke again i picked her up she fell to sleep and has been sleeping for about 10min.fingers crossed!
What can i do to make this work, any stories of ppl in similar situations would be so very appreciated i just want to no im doing the right thing, i just really need my bed back and for her to sleep on her own.
Hey hey, we are in a similar but not quite the same situation - we have just moved DD from her cot to the big bed. She is 15mths too... but we don't cosleep and she was generally pretty good at sleeping in her cot... but I wanted to try and help anyway! If I can...
Things I can suggest that worked for us:
- We had the bed set up and encouraged her to play on it before we tried to get her to sleep in it. We didn't want it to be a negative place with bad experiences (ie only sleeping) so we spent time in there reading books, playing with toys, etc.
- She uses a sleeping bag and (at this point) she still uses it in the big bed. So she still has that sleep trigger - "in your bag, time for sleeping".
- We use verbal sleep cues - "Time for sleeping, kiss from mummy, I'm closing the curtains now" - which we try and keep consistent every time she has a sleep (day or night) so she understands it is sleep time
- We moved her sleep toys with her into the big bed
So does your DD have any sleep cues or toys that you could use? My DD always sleeps with a Miffy and a stuffed ferret and as soon as we put her down her hands are reaching out for them, she gets quite worked up if she can't find them. If your DD doesn't currently have a comforter like that, could you introduce one? You could start off by telling her "Mummy and Miffy (or whatever) are having a sleep now, time for baby to sleep too" and then just wean her back to "Sleep time with Miffy" or whatever.
The other thing you could try is telling her what is happening - "Its time for sleeping, lie down and have a sleep now. Mummy will give you a kiss and tuck you in and I will be right here when you wake up."
I'm starting to realise my DD understands more than I give her credit for... so maybe if your DD understands what's going on and feels safe and loved she will be happy to go to sleep in her new room.
Or something else you could try - keep lying down with her, I think you said her mattress is on the floor? You could lie next to her, then when she is dozy but not asleep, you give her a kiss and say "time for sleeping" and leave. Then you gradually leave earlier and earlier... until she is wide awake and you don't even need to lie down with her.
I hope some of these suggestions might work for you... Its a tough time! Good luck!
Thank you so much ocean princess you have given me some great advise which i will be using , so far so good read her a book about 630 and gave her a bottle and put her into bed layed their for a couple of min and shes been asleep 30 or so , Touchwood!!
We didn't do the co sleeping things but when i moved DD1 from a cot to bed it was all about routine. Using the same words, same routine, etc etc
When she gets out i would go back in and do exactly the same thing again. Sometimes I would have to do it 10times but eventually she got the point.
HTH xx
Thanks so much sunshine xo
its still really difficult as i am her comforter,i've tried introducing some things like a teddy blanket etc, i know this is going to be a long process, last night wasn't to bad put her down at 630-7 and she slept till 9 comforted her for 5 min, slept till 11, comforted her, then 1230 she came in to bed with me as it was freezing, i think that's what kept waking her up, ive rugged her up alot more tonight but think i need to get her a sleeping bag, so far so gd tonight one wake up(because i wasn't there) and shes back down! i'm pretty exhausted as she only had a 20min nap today tho
Trying to move DD into her own bed.. need help!
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Its a tough time! Good luck!
, so far so good read her a book about 630 and gave her a bottle and put her into bed layed their for a couple of min and shes been asleep 30 or so , Touchwood!!
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