Moving our Daughter’s Bed to her own Room
A few weeks ago, we decided to see if our then 23-month-old daughter was ready to sleep in her own room again after many months of sleeping in our room. The first night my daughter slept in her room, she woke up crying around 2 am. We decided to take her to our bed for the rest of the night, but surprisingly, she did not want to be there and would not calm down until we went back to her room and I lay down beside her. The following night, she went to her bed by herself which shocked us. She did wake up during the night again, but this time she wasn’t screaming. Unlike the previous night, I just went to her room and lay down beside her and she fell asleep without a problem. Now, every night, she walks over to her bed, lies down and falls asleep beside me within 5-10 minutes. The next day, she wakes up between 7 and 8 am and walks over to our bed. If it’s closer to 7 am, then she will sometimes go back to sleep for another hour or so.
While our daughter was sleeping with us in the same room for more than a year and a half, I’ve been told many times that she shouldn’t. Very few people, like my mother and grandmother, were supportive of what I was doing. My much younger brother slept in my parents’ room until he was four, so to me and my mother it definitely wasn’t strange that our daughter was still in our room. I am so glad I did whatever I thought was right because I did not have to suffer by using methods such as “cry it out”. Our daughter was ready to move to her own room and that is what makes me really happy.
I really do believe that staying close to your little ones for at least the first couple of years is important for many reasons. Also, time flies and you’ll quickly start missing those brief moments you were able to share with your baby.
Tagged as: co-sleeping · cry it out · sleeping · toddlers
Good for you for sticking to what you know is right for you and your family, Agnes! My daughter slept with us for quite a while as a baby, too, and I believe that is why she never needed a comfort object like a blankie.
Thank you for the comment, Julie. I really appreciate it!
we are just in the process of moving our 23 month old boy into his own bed in his own bedroom. he loves his bed! at bedtime he doesn’t even make a move for our bed anymore, he goes straight to his own. he knows it’s his and he’s excited to use it.
yeah, i go in and lay down with him at some point between 2 and 4am but that is so understandable! he’s soooo used to having us next to him that he wakes up alone…no guff that he wants someone there. he’s getting so good at it though that he gets back to sleep pretty quickly.
i am still breastfeeding as well. (something that many people think is crazy! but not me!) and for the most part he’ll go back to sleep wthout the boob but sometimes he is hungry and that’s the easiest thing. so on he goes and then he rolls away and falls asleep.
this seems to work for us!
i’m glad that little Ovo is happy and that she got you so close for so long!
He was just ready, like our little monkey :-)
Breastfeeding until 2 is not as uncommon anymore as I thought. I breastfed our daughter until she was 21 months at which point she almost weaned herself. I think she only had breast milk once or sometimes twice a day towards the end. Soon after I stopped breastfeeding, I met some women who breastfed until their toddlers were 2 or 2.5. If I had met them earlier, I probably would’ve tried to stretch breastfeeding until our daughter turned 2. The funny thing is that I didn’t think I would be breastfeeding past 1 year because of the lack of support from a lot of people around me.