Question for co sleepers and night light/teddy users

[Salad]

when DD was 7 months old her sleep went out the window and we had 2.5 months of terrible night waking etc. so we ended up using a controlled crying techinique which worked really well for us and we all got some sleep again.
DD is 14 months old now and her sleep is starting to be all over the place again, I sit with her and soothe her to sleep at the moment which works really well (i used to just put her to bed and she would cry for a few minutes then go to sleep - since I have been pregnant i find this really hard to do and I like to be there to see her off to sleep - some weird pregnancy hormone thing I am sure) I dont know wether this has started causing my problems. I know she has had tooth after tooth come through in the last few months so that could be disrupting her sleep also.

We will have 3 nights straight where she will sleep until 2am wake, then self settle and sleep till 7am - 8am, then this will be followed by 2-3 nights of waking at 2am not self settling and then an hour or more later she will end up in our bed.
We have a king size bed so this isnt a problem, and we both love seeing her face when we wake up in the morning or having a cuddle. I am worried though that this will be difficult when our new baby arrives in a few months.
My first question is, if DD gets used to co sleeping with us now - will we have problems when she is older - I dont want her to be 5 years old and in our bed - is it easier to teach an older child to stay in their own bed or will it be harder.

My next question relates to why is she waking up, I know it could be many many things, I feel that it could be nightmares or separation anxiety because as soon as I put her in our bed she settles and sleeps without waking at all. I have thought of maybe using a night light (currently have a Gro egg in there but maybe its not brite enough). I also thought of maybe giving her a teddy to cuddle which she loves but I am worried she will suffocate, is she old enough to have one in the cot with her.

Sorry for the long post and the questions. Hoping someone may have some good ideas.

xoxoxox

[BrightSparkles]

My dd has been taking a teddy to bed with her from about 12 months. She cuddles it for a little bit then it gets tossed aside but she always seems to find it during the night. It's not a huge one but big enough for her to cuddle

[Netix]

I forget how old Steph was when I gave her a toy to try and get her to sleep, but maybe around the one year mark, so I would think its fine. As Sunshine said, not something huge. Also I would say that it is harder to get kids out of the co-sleeping habit when they are older. The Man let the Boy climb into our bed every weekend (since he was four!!!!!!) and he would still come in to bed at eight or nine y.o. when he would wake up early in the morning. Hated that!

For a night light, we put a dimmer switch on the light switch, that worked really well for us. You just can't have a dimmer switch on a flouro globe (the energy saving ones) I think.

[nicjay]

We had lots of problems with DD1 and her sleeping at night at around 18 months, but she slept well by day. One day we finally realised that she didn't like sleeping in the dark and started using a light in her room at night - she then slept well. If you think the light thing could be it its worth a try - it certainly worked for us, and she still sleeps with the light on at age almost 6. We have a little childrens lamp with a dimmer on it, got it just from a local lighting shop.

We also coslept with her for a while, first in our bed, then we moved her into a cot in our room, then converted the cot into a bed and finally at about age 3 we got her a big bed and she was more than happy to go into her own room. Don't worry, the cosleeping won't last forever

I'm not really sure at which age she started sleeping with soft toys - her "friends" as we call them - probably around the same age I think and she sitll sleeps with them too LOL. As long as its a relatively small toy I'm sure you'll be fine

HTH

[~me~]

Both my boys love having their 'babies' in bed. They have since probably around 12mths too. They have their favourites.
Has she reached a milestone that could be causing her to be unsettled? The other thing maybe she is sensing your pregnancy and impending baby and just wants extra re-assuring cuddles.
I have a dinosaur Giimmo night light for my boys. They can cuddle it as it doesn't heat up at all and it lights up enough to keep the monsters away. It's brighter than I thought, but they love it!
I bought mine from the bambini pronto online we.
The odd night in bed with you shouldn't be a long term habit, if it's every night, it could become difficult to break, especially when your baby arrives.
Hope she settles soon for you, it's tough when you are pregnant especially

[fionas]

Have you tried a fluffy blanket? You could give it to her the next few times she comes into your bed and then put her to bed with it so she's got it when she wakes up.

[Salad]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone:
Heather72 - in regards to the milestone, she started walking 5 weeks ago and also since then the things she has learnt to do have been amazing, do you think this could be disrupting her or is there another milestone I could be missing. Good point on the sensing the baby too I never thought of that.

I have given her a average sized teddy in bed tonight, she seems to really like this one in particular so I will see how she goes with that, if not then I will try that and a night light.

[~me~]

Hope you had a better night.
I would say with the walking, that would be enough to do it. She is probably exploring heaps and seeing things she hasn't noticed before. Sometimes I find the boys find it hard to switch off their minds at night, they eventually fall asleep, then if they wake start thinking about things again and struggle to get back to sleep.