What do your DC have in their cots?

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

Two DC, both poor sleepers (wake in the night, wake at 5am, etc).

Trying loads of different things to help get them to sleep better, but one thing I did want to ask is what other people's DC have in their cot?

DS1 (2.3yrs) has a pillow, duvet, about 15 soft toys, 3 books (his bedtime stories of that night) and 2 tommee tippee cups in case he wakes in the night and wants a drink!

DS2 (1 yr next week) has soft toys and a taggie blanket.

Not so worried about DS2 but does DS1 have too much stuff in his cot?!

I know it sounds like a stupid question but just trying to rule stuff out/in.

DD 12mo has nothing apart from her blankets. I found that having things in or attached to her cot stopped her from going to sleep as easily.

TBH I do think your DS1 does have rather a lot of things in his cot.

Hmm, that's what I thought . Problem is trying to wean him off them! Do we go cold turkey or gradually cut down?

Rod . . . back . . . springs to mind!

We had good reasons for giving him this stuff at the moment, and it did work, but I now wonder whether it's become counter-productive.

15 month old son has had nothing for the past week, and sleeps much better as a result. I just took everything out at once and he never noticed.

Think we might have to follow suit Panzee, but I suspect that, as DS is a year older, he'll notice!

Just depends on how long it takes for him to get used to the changes .

DS (21 months) has 2 bears and an elephant, in three of the corners. He is a good sleeper but moves around a lot so any more stuff would get in the way, I think.

Could you at least cut down the toys, and maybe 1 book only? Perhaps one book and a couple of toys?

DS (2.3) has pillow, sheet (too warm for duvet) and two animal toys. Blimey knitting I'm surprised there's enough room for him to lay down!! Get rid I say - can't do any harm - if it makes things worse put them back in. Maybe get rid of one or two per day until there are only a couple of things left?

DS1 (2.8) has a tuck tuck (!), 5 blankie bears and a large teddy bear which I think is a bit too much. It seems to have slowly built up over time.

DS2 (8 months) has a blankie bear

DS (2.3) has pillow, duvet, 1 quite large Iggle Piggle, and about 6 other small soft toys.

If he's got himself in a knot then I remove things when I go and check on him before I go to bed.

Can you do that - at least with the books and maybe a few toys?

Why 2 cups? Tbh I couldn't let DS have a cup in bed incase he spilt it everywhere - even the alleged non-spill ones he has worked out how to make them all drip by pressing or squeezing different parts of the tops.

ds3 (age 2.3) has an increasing amount of stuff in his cot, much more than the other 2 ever did BUT it's not affecting his sleep.As soon as it does then we'll do something about it but until then we're going with it. He has
a duvet and pillow
a few books to look at when he wakes up
a doll, with hat in case it's cold(don't ask) and her own blanket
2 soft toy dogs
2 teddies
and a bunch of keys!!

When he gets up he takes the doll, dogs, keys out of the cot too!!!

Dd 2.3 has pillow duvet and cushion Cat (toy one)2 taggies and numerous soft toys plus sometimes a book or bath toy .

Tbh it helped settle her as she doesn't always go straight to sleep and I also remove stuff when I go and check on her.

Oh and deb cat taggie and other toys also make way into our bed in the morning.

Lol at keys!!

Like others have said it's just gradually built up over time - starts off with one or two, then he just took more and more stuff in with him.

The cups arrived about a year ago and worked really well for months - he would wake up, have some water and go straight back to sleep. He's so careful with them and I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he's spilt them. He has two because he has woken up and finished one and then cried for more!

Think we'll go for reducing the toys first then move on to the books and cup!

DS2 (17mo) had a Makka Pakka in his cot but I confiscated it a couple of weeks ago as it had turned into a game for him to chuck it onto the floor at all hours of the night and wail for me to go and get it.

He did sleep better without it for a while... until he hit on the new wheeze of taking his sleeping bag off, hurling it out of the cot and then crying (but laughing as soon as I put him back in it)...

It does sound like way too much stuff TBH.

How about moving him to a bed? Do the whole 'big boy' thing: night light, 1 tommee tippee cup and books on his bedside table, choice of which 3 toys he takes in. Impress that big boys sleep in the night time etc.

We're too scared to take the sides off Fermina - sleep is so scarce in our house and we're nervous of making it even worse .

DD3 has one small pink newborn teddy, soft floppy one. Nothing else is allowed in her cot if I dare try and put anything else in, it is ejected straight away.

Ds 2.1 has his grobag, 3 blankies and a larger blanket, a plastic toy or duck or book that he's insisted on taking with him (I take them all out during the day), and a selection of dummies because he demands to have a choice each night.

Seems to work - he's enthusiastic about going to bed so he can get his blankie and dummy... course last night he managed to lose the dummy but on the whole he sleeps well, touch wood...

Belive me, I know what it's like to have bad sleepers. Sometimes you you have to take a risk, DS1 may well surprise you.

How difficult is to to take the sides off? More importantly how long does it take to put them back on?

I really feel for you. I lived on +/- 4 hours of broken sleep a night for 2 1/2 years. DD started sleeping through on a relatively regular basis at about 2 1/12 and DS was waking 3 hourly until he was 14 months. They still wake now. We've had everything from not going to sleep, to early waking via hours of night screaming (to name but a few). I have an 18 month age gap so slightly larger than yours.

Hi Knitting. R has nothing but blankets, no toys, no pillows, no books. But he never has had. I think taking stuff out one thing a night sounds like a good idea.

If you do go down the bed route, (I understand if you don't right now), we've done the opposite of the big boy = big bed fuss and touch wood, it's worked brilliantly. We took the side off the cot, but kept everything else the same and acted like nothing had changed. Then we put the bed in the same place the cot had been and again kept everything else the same and acted like nothing has changed.

He hasn't tried to get out of bed once or fallen out or anything. I'm not sure what it says about R's intelligence, but he doesn't seem to have realised anything has changed.

DD has lots of stuff in her cot too - a pillow, a grobag, a "baby blanket", a doll, 2 teddies (that have to be next to her), then about 6 teddies that are shoved up behind the pillow. Often a cup of water too. But she sleeps through.

Hi Knitting. T doesn't have anything . She's still in a cot and for the last few weeks has asked to put on her dressing gown at bedtime instead of extra blankets or a sleeping bag. So she has her PJs and dressing gown on and a blanket, and there's nothing else in her cot.

DD1 never really had anything in her cot, either. The boys usually had a couple of toys but your DS1's cot does sound rather full .

DS, 4, has always had a tommee tippee. And a duvet. Occasionally a teddy. And regularly, some random hard object - it was Daddy's wallet the other night, he also went through a coathanger phase.

DD, 2, can't have a drink 'cos she just pours it out for a laugh, insists on going to bed with a book, also has a duvet, sometimes a toy but she usually systematically throws toys out before going to sleep.

DS1 (3) - Sleepytot bunny (no dummies attached), blanket and pillow.

DS2 (1.5) Sleepytot bunnies (one big, one small - 4 dummies attached to each), pillow, blanket, 3 books, a few cars, plus woody and buzz light year sitting at the bottom!

Both sleep right through! Sometimes it's more to do with the small person I think.

Maybe you coudl move your eldest into a bed and get him a little something to sit all the stuff on. So it's nearby but not in the bed with him?

Thank you everyone - penguin, I had to laugh at the idea of R's blissful ignorance that his cot sides had gone!!

I will discuss this with dh - but I'm not sure if we could put the sides back on once taken off without causing immense distress, and as he shows no signs of wanting to climb out we're stalling .

I did take quite a few things out last night and got woken up by a plaintive wail at 1am of "my bear, my bear" but went back to sleep after about 5 mins! DS2 then woke briefly at 5am and then went back to sleep - both of them woke at 6.30am .

Not a bad night in the Knitting household!

Wonderful night knitting1