Be careful what you wish for.
For the longest time, I’ve been wishing my son would sleep in his own bed. Last night it came true. My 26 month old (to the day, strangely enough) actually slept in his own bed for the entire night. At 7:37 a.m, he peeked his little head in my door and then started to back away. I had to actually lift my head up and say hello to him so he’d come in. He had a huge smile on his face and told me that he slept in his own bed. Awwwwwwww! Meanwhile, in my head, I’m like I know honey and I missed the heck out of your warm little body all snuggled up to mine. But, instead, I said “I know….and I am SOOOO proud of you!!!” and gave him lots of hugs and kisses.
Little does anyone know that what I really meant when I wished for that, was for him to fall asleep in his own bed without me having to lay down with him. I don’t mind so much that he gets up and comes in our bed in the middle of the night. In fact, I quite like it. However, I know it’s best that he sleeps through the night and in his own space. It’s better for both of us. Hopefully this was not a freak event and hopefully I will get used to it soon. I was up like 4 times last night wondering if he was ok and/or when he was going to come in. Yes, I even checked on him once and of course was relieved to see him all cozied up and breathing. Oy!!
So now I guess we will work on getting him to fall asleep on his own. I think it’s about time.
He’s been in his “big boy bed” for a long time now and rarely slept in a crib, but for those of you that transitioned your kids from cribs to beds, how did you get them to fall asleep in the new bed and stay there?
C- I totally understand what you're going through and hopefully somebody will chime in with a magic no fail solution....HAH!
No advice on how to get him to fall asleep alone. I'm teaching DS to do that now, and it's hard enough to do when he's not able to get out of bed yet. As it is, he rolls all around his crib in an attempt to ellude sleep!
In order to get him to sleep in his bed, and most importantly to fall asleep in his own bed, well that was a little tricky at first. But we came to the conclusion that if we let him stay up about a half hour later then he normally would have when he was in the crib, it made for a much easier time for him to fall asleep on his own. He used to go to bed at 8pm when he was in his crib, but now that he is in his "big boy bed" he now goes to bed at 8:30pm. He will go to bed sooner then that if he didn't take a nap and starts to hit and be mean.
If he does protest, which he does on occasion, we just pick him back up off the floor and tuck him back in bed. At first we did this numerous times, but now he will stay in his bed and fall asleep on his own.
So my advice would be to let him stay up a little later, that way it shows to him that since he isn't a "baby" anymore (because he isn't in a crib) that along with being a big boy comes a little more lee way so to speak. Logan will always be my baby bear, even when he gets married!
I guess what I'm saying is that if you both get something out of your night time snuggles, don't give up on them just because you're "supposed" to when your kid gets to a certain age. They may turn out to be some of your fondest memories. In any case, good luck with your endeavours.