Two Year Old Who Doesn't Want to Sleep in Her Own Bed

I went through this with my youngest..It's not easy,but I had to tell her that Santa is making his list for Christmas and if he saw that she wasn't sleeping in her own bed,that she was going to put coal in her stocking.
I hope this helps.

I just broke my daughter of this a couple weeks ago, and what did the trick was a sticker chart, along with consistency and making sure that there is a specific bedtime routine. With her she gets her pajamas on then we read a couple books, brush out teeth and go to bed. THe first couple nights she got up a couple times and i put her back and she was fine, then she went like 3 or 4 nights when she would get up and if i put her in bed she's scream and she got up and i'd keep putting her back in bed it went on for 2 hours and believe me i was ready to just let her stay up but it's the consistency that will break the habit. After those few days she wouldn't get up but would holler to me from her bed but now we've even broken that. The nights that she just got up like once or twice i'd still let her put a sticker on her chart and after 5 stickers we go to the store and she gets a special treat like M&Ms or something, nothing to expensive. Now she goes right to bed and doesn't say anything and is so excited every morning to get up and put a sticker on her chart. I hope this helps.
T.

B.,
I have a three year old who also won't sleep in her bed she sleeps on the floor next to our bed on a balnket.So i know what your going through even if i put here in her bed afters shes sleeping she comes back some how.
T.

I agree with Tracy S. You have to keep putting her back in her bed. Maybe you can take her out shopping for a special night light and sheet set tha tshe picks out.....maybe that will help....Good Luck....K.

I have a double bed in my 21 month old son's room for just this reason. I can lay down w/him to sleep at night, creep out and spend some quality time in bed w/dh, and then if he wakes and needs company I go to his bed w/him until it's time to get up. He's pretty good, sleeps from 8ish to usually 5ish. If he has a fever or needs me for some reason, we have a place to go that isn't kicking dh out of bed. That's not fair. I believe that children were MEANT to sleep w/their parents/siblings, and it's our responsibility to make sure they feel welcome and loved no matter what time it is. You just need to figure out for yourself how to do that. Some people have a futon or pull out cushion next to their bed, some people have a BIG family bed, some people split it up like I do. I would be happy to brainstorm with you more about that if you want, just pm me. Good luck mama - your instincts are RIGHT ON!

hi B. i have two kids. i had to get my son to sleep in his own bed. he was in my bed till he was four. what i did was buy a toddler bed. put the bed in my room and had him sleep there. it took a little to get him to go to sleep on his own in the bed with out me in the room. then when he woke up i would put him back in the toddler bed. when he started to sleep through the night with out waking up, i started to move the bed closer and closer to the door and would talk about sleeping in his room in the big boy bed. the put him in his bed. when he would wake up in the middle of the night i would walk him back to his room and lay him down and give him a kiss and say good night and leave the room. i just kept doing that and he started to sleep in his room in his own bed. i hope that this works for you.

As much as I'm sure you won't like this answer. The only way that I know of to break this habit is consistancy. You have to put her in her bed at night, and when she shows up at your bedside put her back into her bed. I had the same problem with my son a while back. First I'd sit with him until he fell asleep, and now I just put him to bed and walk away. If you let her sleep in your bed even just once, she's going to want to do it again and again. You giving in is only going to make this problem worse. It's going to be hard at first ewith tears and tantrums, but after about a week I'd say it mellows out dramatically. Stand your gound. Get your daughter back in her bed, and your husband back in yours.

B., I'm actually going through the same issues. However, with me it isn't that it bothers me to have my lil' guy sleeping with me, it's just that I want to have him in a routine and soon. We do have somewhat of a routine going where we eat dinner, play for a little while, have a snack, brush our teeth and lie down to sleep. But since I am looking into putting him into some type of preschool now, I really need him to cooperate. I really can't blame anyone but myself cause I've put him in our bed with us even when he was ok in his own. He has been out of a crib and in a toddler bed for just under a year now. He loved the fact that he could sleep like a big boy at first but in the last 4 months of so, he doesn't wanna sleep in his big boy bed..he would rather sleep in mommy and daddy's bed where he can hold us which is what he usually does. I do still put him in his bed once he is asleep but it doesn't last very long, usually about 2 hours then he is back at our bedside asking to be put in the middle. I have tried the whole letting him cry bit but I can't sleep and feel extremely guilty. I've gone nights where I lose 3-4 hours of sleep trying to get him back to sleep in his own bed but again, I can't blame anyone for that but myself. I do like the idea of putting a roll away bed or mattress in his room so that when he wants to sleep with me, I can lie down right next to him. Anyway, if you somehow resolve your issues, please let me know how you did it. Sorry I couldn't be more help to you but I thought I would share the fact that you are not the only one in this situation. Good Luck!

B. -

I actually just went through this with my son...he's still in a crib (he doesn't want to sleep in a bed in his room for some reason), but this is what we did...he's very attached to me, so when he woke up one night in the middle of the night (we'd put him down at 7:30 and he'd be up by 9 begging to come into our bed), my husband went to get him. He calmly told him that mommy was sleeping and that he had to stay in his crib. We put a nightlight in his room and told him we'd keep his door open. We also put a small blanket/comforter in the crib over him to make him feel like he was in a bed. It took 2 hours to get him back to sleep that first night for my husband, but we repeated the process 2 more nights and the time for him to go back to sleep decreased with each night. He still wakes up once at night (usually around 4 am), but now we can get him to go back to sleep in about 3 minutes (with just a small pat on his back and a reassurance that we're there if he needs us). It does take about 3 or 4 nights of constant getting out of bed to go back to the child's room, but they do learn pretty quickly. You just have to be firm because they're very smart (even at 2) and once you give in, they know that if they whine a little more, mommy will give in. Good luck!