Over the weekends, we decided to pack up Sophie's cot as she's not been sleeping in it for the past 3 months.
She's turning 20 months in 2 week's time and many would argue that she's not ready to make the transition to the big bed as the recommended age is at least 2 years old. By then they'll be able to understand that they have to stay in bed and not do a Houdini escape act. While others recommend going by these signs
- they start climbing out of the cot
- they are being toilet trained and it helps them to get to the toilet easily during the night
- they should not be staying in our bed or
- the arrival of a new baby who needs the cot
Out of the 4, we're battling with no 3. It was somewhere in the beginning of the year that she started to join us in bed. At that time, we reasoned that it was because she was going through a phase of separation anxiety and would cry out to us in the middle of the night. At first, we would go into her room and give her a little pat or use our voice as a reassurance and she'll go back to sleep. But the night wakings got more frequent and we caved in and carried her to room to sleep with us. We regretted not sticking to our guns and am now paying the price for it as we have to take turns to sleep with her on our bed while the other gets banished to her room as there's simply not enough room for 3 on a queen size bed! (Sophie rolls around the bed too much)
Sophie enjoyed her cot in the early days
You can tell that she's no longer interested in sleeping in the cot
Since she's no longer sleeping in the cot, we decided to pack up the cot and focus on making her room more inviting to sleep in. Now we just got to decide when we're prepared to start the sleep training since I had a surgery not too long and it would be too exhausting to get up a few times in the night. After all, we don't want to make this another futile attempt as we endeavor to teach the dear daughter independent sleep.
Have u tried letting her sleep in a playpen so that she can't climb out? We progressed from cot to playpen and then to a normal adult single bed. For cot and playpen, we let him sleep in our room but not on the same bed as us. Once he progressed to adult bed, either me or my hubby will sleep with him and then back to our bed once he falls asleep. Seemed to work for us. Now he sleeps on his own and doesn't pay us a visit at night.
ReplyDeleteBaby G's Mummy
Hi Sandra,
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a playpen so considering letting her sleep on the mattress on the floor when we decide to start the sleep training.
I've also started to give her a comfort item, a bolster, so hopefully she'll use it instead of looking for us for comfort.