For those who co-sleep

Hi, my DD is 16mth old sleeps in a cot but a couple of times she has woken up and wont settle with a bottle. This is not often but it does happen. At these times I have brought her into our bed for a bit of a cuddle as I figure she may have a tummy ache or be teething and want to soothe her not let her cry.

The only problem is that as soon as we bring her into our bed she is in full "party mode" and starts laughing and crawling all over us, now while this is really cute (minus the eye gouging) I was wondering for those who co-sleep how do you prevent bed time being play time?

When my DS was a baby, we would put him in bed and he would cuddle up and fall asleep but Ruby is like a circus monkey! :rolleyes:

Lol oh, the eye-gouging is awesome, isn't it? We never co-slept with DD1 (I'm doing it with DD2 because it's easier to BF in the middle of the night, with DD1 I had to get up and drag myself to the kitchen to make a bottle anyway so it didn't matter that she was in her own bed), but there are times when she wakes up in the middle of the night and comes into our bed and then decides to start jumping around, yelling and playing...

DH and I just turn the lights off, roll over and try to hold her down on the bed... usually she gives up and lays quietly (she may or may not fall asleep, as long as she's not kicking me and rolling over my head I don't care), I'm sorry that's not much help but that's how we do it :/
DH is a pain because if she comes into our bed he will start laughing and tickling her and stirring her up, but usually once the lights are off and she's told, 'Nigh-nigh time now' and given a kiss, she settles.

I hope that helps :) Sorry I haven't got any productive advice!! I'm sure the full-time co-sleepers will have some better tips for you :)

Even the regular co-sleepers get like this sometimes. Its quality time with mum and dad and they really don't like to waste it.

Lights out, lay them down, put the blanket over them and do as you do every time you put them to bed. If it takes putting them on their belly and patting their bum to get them back out like a light then thats the magic button.

Lights out is the most vital bit though. Then they cant see to play... or go for your eyes when they are closed!

I do recommend opening them when they do that and telling them no. Ignoring it doesn't work. Last time I tried I got smacked in the head with a plastic dinosaur.

the only thing that worked for us was totally ignoring him til he got bored and went to sleep. However there were a few times when we ended up yelling in frustration, or yelling due to DS injuring us with his acrobatics....I think eventualy he just realised that is he didnt settle down adn go to sleep i mum and dads bed, we would make himj sleep in his own bed.

that is part of the reason why ashton sleeps in his own cot most of the time now... I couldn't handle the hair pulling, crawling over my face, sitting up and playing thing.

Thank you for all your replies. Its nice to know that I am not alone!


Inertia, I noticed that you have another little one due soon! Wishing you all the best! :D

Bella is fulltime co-sleeping and she will ocassionally have the party bug, I just keep puting the blacket back on and dummy in until she goes back to sleep. Doesn't really take long for her to get the idea that no one is coming to her party.
Best of luck.

Seven has been co-sleeping with us since the day of her birth, some 10 months ago.
We have only just started trying to wean her into her cot due to the fact that she feeds so much from me at night, I am being worn down too much. :(

Sometimes I feel that Seven is a Cirque de So Lei wannabe she tumbles around so much, and if you dare make a PEEP or crack an eyelid, its ON!
My list of injuries so far include: 1 scratched cornea, 2 cut lips, 1 earring removed rather violently at 3.30am, and you get the idea.
So, what WE do is wrap her, and DH snuggles her right up close to him, and puts her head under his chin. He brings his knees up and snugs her in nice and tight, and hums over the top of her lil head.
Doesn't always work, but sometimes it does.

Hope you get some rest from your spinning top soon!

Fortunately our children only went into party mode in the later part of the morning... after 6am... when it was time to get up anyhow. We co-slept from birth though. Maybe it's still a bit of a novelty? I agree with the others though: boredom is the key: darkness and silence... whisper if you have to talk. My DH also used to drone a story (to settle them down at the start of the night)... in a monotone voice he used to tell the same story: "once upon a time there was a little red car... and it liked to drive down the road... and one day it passed a blue car... and they both drove down the road... and some days the red car drove fast and beat the blue car as they drove down the road... and some days the blue car beat the red car...." and on and on and on he would drone... sometimes even putting me to sleep! Oh and they had to lie down before he would start the story.... if they got up he would stop.... untl they lay back down.

My DD sleeps in her own bed but is free to come and co-sleep if she wakes (has been since tiny). At around your DD's age she also would play the clown some nights. Our solution was to tell her if she wasn't going to sleep in Mummy and Daddy's bed then she could go back in her own bed, and stick to this. We did have to carry out our thread once or twice (which she wasn't particularly happy about), but it worked. We took the sides off her cot at 16 mths and she wasn't doing it by that stage.

Jasper co-sleeps half the night. He doesn't do it with me, but if he spots daddy - even sleeping daddy - he gets revved up and giggles, shouts, slaps and yeah, eye gouges, sleeping daddy. All daddy has to do to provoke him is roll over or sigh in his sleep and its ON!!! :dance:

I just put him back to bed at this stage, as theres no stopping him. I'll hear him sometimes chatting to himself in his cot until he winds himself down after all the excitement of seeing daddy!!! :rolleyes:

lol that is so cute!