Basically, after months of trying to get my DS, nearly 4, to sleep through, I have admitted defeat and set up a mattress in the corner of our room, so that he and I can both get a decent night's sleep. He wakes up to 4 times per night, which has built up gradually over the past 3 or 4 months, He has always been a bad sleeper, but it is now worse than ever, and without proper rest I feel I can't face supernanny-type techniques. He is a super sensitive (and very stubborn) child, and I know his reaction to that type of technique as I have tried it several times over the course of getting him to sleep through. Also tried some of the techniques in the No Cry Sleep Solution. I work 4 days a week, and am to all intents and purposes a single parent, as my DH lost the use of his right arm following a stroke during my pregnancy, plus all his speech, and his focus is on his recovery (that is another story!). I see this as a temporary measure but I was a bit taken aback at my DS's enthusiasm for the 'mini bed' when I explained it to him earlier. So, if you have co-slept or had a similar situation for your DC, what age did they grow out of it? And did they do this naturally, or did you have to basically stop them from doing it? I mean, I am assuming this happens naturally at some stage as obviously teenagers no longer do this... do they??!!
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If you co-slept, at what age did your DC grow out of it, and how?
insicknessandinhealth · 19/09/2011 19:35
It is entirely up to your and your DH what you can put up with and how quickly you want to move him back into his own bedroom. But my story is that one night my DD at about 3 looked at the (never used) bed in her room. I saw her doing it and jumped at the chance. I gently and calmly offered her a sticker to sleep in it, and put the sticker on the headboard. She climbed straight in. Never comes in our bed in the night now, except for cuddles in the morning. Her decision. Her timing.
The suggestion that others will have that you will need to eject them forcibly is total crap. But, when you think they've had the reassurance they need to get over whatever rocky patch it is, it can be a nice "trick" to make their bedroom as enticing as possible, and use little bribes if you use them generally to reward wanted behaviour.
Every child is different, of course. 
Littlest DD is just 11 months and she's going off co-sleeping. This is far earlier than I ever thought as my first child (aged 12 years now) would occasionally sleep in with me (but only me, not if my husband was present) until about 5-6 years old.
Big DD stopped really wanting to at 5-6 because Mummy sometimes farted, made the bed too hot, stole the covers, took up too much space and fidgeted too much, which Mummy thought was a highly entertaining set of reasons!
Little DD seems to have come to dislike sleeping cuddled up to me with her head on my arm, preferring a flatter surface, but as she's on the outside of a high bed this is not possible, so most nights she goes straight to sleep in her own cot, which has direct line of sight to where I sleep. I've been rejected again! 
It's convenient though, our next baby is due in a month.
PS this is very naughty so I wasn't going to say it, but I have had a change of heart...
I might have helped big DD along with that decision. Perhaps I didn't have to make special farting chilli quite that often or roll over quite that irritably or take quite that much duvet...
Bad Mummy!
Brilliant, thank you so much for your responses everyone, I feel completely reassured and am going to stop listening to the Supernanny voices in my head and go with my instinct. DS came to his 'mini bed' at 3.30, went almost straight back to sleep until 5.20 - but that is normal for him, early bird! Apart from my DH snoring I had a decent night's sleep! Interestingly, he would normally wake up a couple of times before 3.30, so I wonder if the reassurance of knowing he could eventually come in to us made him a bit more relaxed about sleeping. Love not having to get out of my bed either, makes such a difference to your mood.
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