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Parenting

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Original poster

Please help my toddler transition out of the cot! Desperate!

15 replies

alotofthetimes · 27/05/2013 03:29

DS has always been a poor sleeper and I think we are slowly discovering why and I have googled this problem and cant find anyone else having the same problem or offering solutions, so please help if you can!

He started swaddled and in a bassinet, he slept well until he started breaking out of his swaddle. That is when things started to get more difficult. We tried him in his cot and he constantly rolled against the sides and woke himself up and it was just a nightmare for everyone, so we ended up putting him permanently in the travel cot and he was often quite comfortable with the mesh sides.

He is nearly 2 and has started climbing out of the travel cot so we thought we would transition him out of it. Because he is restless when sleeping we thought it would be too dangerous to try a toddler bed or even a mattress on the floor as he would most certainly roll off it so we started by making a nest on the floor with a large soft quilt on top of the carpet and then his cot mattress on the floor surrounded by some blankets if he was to roll. It has been a disaster and he is constantly rolling around the room/bumping into walls and waking himself up. We cleared everything out of the room and it has no furniture/objects at all so it is very safe.

Putting him to bed in no problem and he goes down at the start of the night without a fuss, he just wakes several hours later, and throughout the night, distressed because he has rolled off his mattress/into a wall.

It is beginning to dawn on me that he may not be like other babies/children in regards to sleeping.

Interestingly as a young baby we tried cosleeping but he was always too wiggly and rolled around too much and i could never sleep, I could never understand how others managed it and now its dawning on me that maybe he is just a very active sleeper. We also never even managed the whole cliche 'bring the baby into bed for a couple of hours in the morning'.

Also our family has a string tendency to sleep walk/talk and ds actually started sleep 'babbling' several months ago.

Has anyone experienced problems like these? Do you think we will just need to wait and he'll adjust? Any ideas about what we can do?

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MaMattoo · 27/05/2013 05:04

I did not want to read and run..
Cot bumpers??
I have a 3 yo DS who rotates in his bed. We moved him from cot to bed a few weeks ago, babydan cot safety side thing has been useful for him. He is sleeping well though runs straight out when he wakes up.
You sound very stressed with trying so many options, could your child be picking that up??

Original poster

alotofthetimes · 27/05/2013 05:23

We actually already have a bedguard, but were worried about putting him on a regular mattress straight away, as there would be a fair way for him to fall even if the mattress was just on the floor.

He is very restless when sleeping and rotates a lot, as well as kicking a lot. He doesn't sleep under blankets at all as he kicks them off and refused to go into a sleeping bag from 6 months by kicking in it and becoming hysterical when I tried to put him in one.

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MaMattoo · 27/05/2013 05:45

That's the same with DS. I put him in fleece lines pjs and a vest, full sleeve Tshirt, thin acrylic jumper into bed. He kicks any cover on his bed, right off...
This too shall pass...

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Original poster

alotofthetimes · 27/05/2013 05:46

We havent actually tried many options as I didnt want to confuse him, so I don't think he is picking up on our stress.

He has been in the travel cot from around 5 months and was quite good in there, although he kept waking fairly frequently until several months ago. Annoyingly he has been sleeping through most of the time for the last couple of months so this has been a big step backwards.

I was only wanting to try something that is highly likely to help (don't want to confuse him by chopping and changing his sleeping arrangements) and I cant think of anything so was wondering if others had experienced similar.

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Original poster

alotofthetimes · 27/05/2013 05:48

Yes I think we may just have to wait and hope he adjusts. Fortunately he has become a much deeper in the last couple of months.

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Original poster

alotofthetimes · 27/05/2013 05:59

deeper sleeper

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Original poster

alotofthetimes · 27/05/2013 06:00

We cant put the bed guard under the cot mattress as it is not heavy enough to hold it down safely.

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MortifiedAdams · 27/05/2013 06:29

Could.you not double up.on bedguards on a big mattress so they cover the whole length of the bed?

Buy him a double bed so he has lots more room?

Wossname · 27/05/2013 07:11

Have you tried a pillow and duvet? We found using these sort of kept dd in the same place in her cot, whereas when she had blankets she would roll all over the cot and wake up as the blankets had come off and she was cold or she was twisted up in them.

I think he needs to be in a cotbed, so enough room but not rolling into the wall etc

Bananapickle · 27/05/2013 09:51

How about dream tubes on a toddler bed? We're just about to try these with our DD.

notcitrus · 27/05/2013 10:23

When we took the side off ds's cotbed, we gave him a full size duvet sideways so it was folded under the mattress on the open side and tucked in on the far side.

Single mattress on the floor you could do the same.

GingerJulep · 27/05/2013 23:04

Gosh, we just went in normal single beds at 2.

And if we fell out we didn't even always wake up (we tended to take duvets with us!).

Nothing useful to add except that

it never did us any harm [sounding old!] and
heck I hope when our LO moves out of cot I don't worry this much.

Is there a real reason not to stock up on arnica cream, place a rug/blanket or whatever on the 'floor side' of a bed against a wall and let him get on with it?

Original poster

alotofthetimes · 28/05/2013 04:01

Ginger the problem is that he is waking every couple of hours, confused and disoriented and as as result we are all tired Also I dont know about you, but I know that my own (home made by my df) toddlerbed from the 70s had nice steep sides and so I stayed in there a lot longer before I started climbing out of it!

Thank you for all your ideas though, I have decided to put him in the single (mattress only at first) and have ordered the dreamtubes (thankyou bananapickle I had not heard of them and they look perfect) and then have the bedguard on the side as well.

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StupidFlanders · 28/05/2013 04:40

I saw in the baby shop some blow up bumpers that go under the sheet- not too high but would stop rolling out. I'd try them with the mattress on the floor.

StupidFlanders · 28/05/2013 04:41

Oops too late- yep I was talking about the dream tubes!

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