I have decided that my son needs to sleep in his own bed, all night.  Not because I don’t love sleeping with him, because I do.  I love snuggling all night and waking up next to him saying a random word every morning like “uh oh” or the standard screaming of “mama, Daaadeeee!”  I need him to sleep in his own bed because in a few short months I will have a new nursling by my side in the bed.  I will also have a husband in that bed.  Our bed is a Queen, not a stately King!

Plus, lately he has been very restless at night.  He used to wake around midnight from his own bed to come to ours (at least we get a little bit if evening time alone in bed!) and sleep all night.  Now he tosses and turns and wakes so that he can put his head on my chest or place his hand in between my boobs.  You read correctly; he likes to put his hand down my shirt in my cleavage for comfort.  This is a little thing that developed after he weaned.  He still loves my boobs but they have a new purpose.  Being that I am pregnant, him moving and kicking and doing acrobatics next to me has gotten very uncomfortable and a little scary.

Since he falls asleep with me rocking him or with me laying next to him in his own bed I have a head start.  He knows he goes “nite nite” in his bed.  He has never fallen asleep on his own but he definitely knows the routine.  I just have no clue how to get him to accept that his bed is his home for the entire night.  I have tried many times to get him back to sleep once he wakes up in his bed.  It works, but he wakes up shortly after I leave and then points to the door screaming.  He wants to be in OUR bed.  I give in and we all get a good night’s rest.

For the past 2 nights I have slept on the floor next to his bed on a couch cushion.  As soon as he wakes I try to comfort him back to sleep.  So far he has crawled out of bed and onto the floor with me.  I have to put him back in his bed.  The only way he falls back asleep is if I am in bed next to him.  Even worse, he has spidey senses and knows when I leave.  I have to wait until he is deeply asleep before getting up and going back to my floor pallet.  If I were with him he would sleep the rest of the night but he knows I am not and wakes again.  This time he won’t let me slip away.  No matter how ninja like I escape after he falls back asleep he will wake up.  So for these two nights I have actually slept in a short twin bed with my son.  I have to curl up because it isn’t long enough for my body.  Often times I am relegated to a small section since my son hogs the bed.

This isn’t solving our problem.  Now I am co-sleeping in a short twin bed.  I would rather co-sleep in my comfy queen!!!  I feel like doing this has to say something.  It says “You are not allowed back in my bed for sleeping.  You will sleep in your own bed.”  But how do I get him to let me leave him?  I try shhushing him to sleep, patting, etc, things that don’t have me IN bed with him but after the 2nd waking he has none of those.  I know I have to do this now before I am too pregnant to do it later, and of course before his brother arrives.  Co-sleeping with a restless 2 year old, newborn, Mommy, and Daddy is not going to work for this family.  Sorry!

I would love any advice from those who have been in a similar situation.  Or just words of sympathy for the pregnant lady sleeping on the floor/ in a toddler bed!