As above!
DD was always brilliant at sleeping through from about 12 months. We've always kept an open mind to co-sleeping as we did it before she went into her own room at 8 months, but especially when she moved to a bed she could get out from and realised she could come to us easily.
She's had a significant amount of big changes in her little life and she doesn't do change! We moved house into my parents for a few months (and she LOVES her grandparents) before we moved into our now home. Baby brother came along soon after (which is when the night creeping into bed started, but only as and when and not too often, and it did stop) and she moved from a childminder setting into preschool, which she loves and absolutely was the right thing for her. But pretty much since she started at nursery, she's been into our bed every single night.
At first, we weren't too bothered. She wouldn't fuss, and still doesn't, and just gets in. Most of the time I wake up in the morning and she's just there! If she wakes us, we'll put her back in her bed if she's asleep, and a few hours later, she's back again. We've even guided her back to bed and she's gone off fine. But if one of us wakes up, we move her. I don't actually remember a time when she kicked off being put back to her own bed. I did have a suspicion she was sleepwalking for a while, but I'm not sold on it.
I'm not too bothered by it at all. I'd rather her sleep, we get our sleep and I know she'll grow out of it eventually. DH on the other hand isn't so much and moans most mornings about it. He says he's worried about how this will affect her later on and he sees how children struggle with separation anxiety on residentials at school (he currently teaches year 6). She stays out at her grandparents once a week and does exactly the same there, just climbs into their bed and drifts off!! They're equally not as bothered as apparently I was 'always in their bed' 🙈 however, as much as he says she needs telling, DH will 99% of the time just leave her as he cba with the tears and the fighting with her at stupid o'clock in the morning as he can get quite cross quite quickly. He doesn't do interrupted sleep (hahaha I hear you all say, I know, it's like we're parents!)
She used to sleep with a fleece blanket that she'd put in her mouth to settle her. She'd just do it subconsciously no matter how many reminders you gave her. We went to the dentist a couple of weeks back, and he said she's got a slight overbite and the blanket needed to stop. Rods for our own backs, I know, but we tried and failed to take it off her for the best part of 2 years so we decided she's old enough to go cold turkey. She took it upon herself last week to empty baskets of clean and dirty washing to find anything remotely fleecy to chew on! Everything is now hidden and it's all starting to click with her that she can't have them. She's got a stuffed toy that feels similar so we gave her that to cuddle, but she's not really one for teddies so she wasn't really bothered.
We did a couple of nights on a blow up bed next to her this week. First night she woke up and tried to wander to our room, so when she realised I was there, after the initial confusion, she just wanted to cuddle into me. She did the same thing with her dad the following night before she was ill through the night, but that's another story!
We tried a new tactic tonight (red light/green light on her yoto as a sleep clock) and she woke up about an hour ago in hysterics, saying she wanted to get into mummy and daddy's bed and she just sobbed uncontrollably for ages. She says she misses her blanket, and she likes to be in our bed (but she likes her bed too!) and the red light scared her, even though it switches off after a while! We cuddled, she settled, I promised we'd go to the shops at the weekend and find a snuggly toy that will help her like her blankey.
I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Is there anything glaringly obvious we need to try? As I said, I'm not too worried about it, and it really should be DH doing the research I suppose, but anyone done anything that worked? Or did anyone's child grow out of it before they started school? Is this more normal than DH thinks?
Sorry for the ramble!