Cosleeping to big bed

[mumtojude]

Harry has seen our neighbours bunk beds and has spoken quite a few times to me about having his own bed. So I arranged to get a single bed from family (will need this anyway for when the doula and midwife might need to rest) and purchased a mattress.

First night Harry is all excited (we are abit sad as our big boy is growing up and out of the family bed) we read books, turn the dinosaur lamp on and lay down to sleep as Harry like either DH or I to cuddle him to sleep. Most nights he goes to sleep cuddling, tonight I stayed for longer than usual and then said goodnight.

Harry lay in bed for about 10 minutes on his own and then said he wanted to go to sleep in the family bed, so I put him in and off to sleep he went.

So, do I encourage him to go to the new bed tomorrow or just do what we always do. I probably will just put him in our bed but was wondering how other cosleepers (children) went from the family bed to their own bed.

[johT]

when bree turned 2 she got her own bed(her big big sis got a double bed so we had a spare single), but she shares a room with jade.she was happy to fall asleep there then come to our room during the night.....so was too easy here lol.

[Emma]

Perhaps you could let Harry guide you as to what to do.

M has her own bed (well it's just a single bed mattress on the floor) which she absolutely loves, but we're still co-sleeping. When it's time for her to sleep, I feed her to sleep in her room, lying with her until she's completely asleep. She wakes up later in the night and comes into our room for boob and stays the rest of the night in with us. Sometimes she'll cry a bit and ask me to go with her back to her bed (I think she prefers it there, just that she wants me in there too) but I think we're gently moving towards her spending more and more of the night in her own bed.

[mumtojude]

I'm happy to have Harry continue with us in our bed, I'll just have to wait and see what he wants to do tomorrow night.

[Theresa]

I'd let him decide what he wants to do....

But having said that I've had to give my pair a bit of a shove They would both happily sleep in my bed, but they would both have to hold me - Georgie usually around the head and Em my arm or something and it just wasn't working for ME - I needed some decent sleep because I was being super crotchety and taking it out on them. So we just put them back in their own beds and they were upset about it for a few weeks but at least want to go to bed in there now...

Maybe just see how he goes....

[mumtojude]

Update.... We asked Harry where he wanted to sleep tonight and he said with us. So our beautiful family bed is still full and very happy.

[Bek]

we've always just gone with what the kids wanted to do. mostly at first that just meant them lying in the big bed pretending to go to bed when the older ones were getting put to bed, and then coming to bed with me later on but then it graduates to starting out the night in their own bed some nights and coming in to our bed when they wake during the night. eventually they start out in their own bed every night, and sometime further on they start sleeping there for the whole night.
Ben's at the point now where he has been sleeping in his own bed (bunks in with Mikey and Lukey) pretty much fulltime - he still sometimes comes in to our room around 4am, but that's fine
I just rearranged our bedroom yesterday and took out the extra bed which hasn't been used in ages, so for the first time in 9 years we just have our bed in our room! it feels very strange!
of course there's still room in the bed with us for a child who happens to come in wanting a cuddle in the middle of the night (although if it's Rhiannon, lol, I think it might be a bit squishy!) They all know that they're always welcome if they want to come in. It's amazing how the family bed changes over the years