18 month DD refusing to sleep in cot

[TimothyClaypoleLover]

DD has, up until now, always been a good sleeper. Then 3 nights ago she started waking in the night and would not settle back to sleep so I relented and took her into bed with me to avoid having to keep getting up to her all through the night. Then following night and last night exactly the same thing happened. I am a little worried that I have set a precedent for co sleeping. I have nothing against co sleeping but DH and I have never done this before. DH has spoken to another parent he knows who told him that at 18 months children become more aware/start having nightmares etc so it is common for them to want to sleep with parents. Has anyone else had experience of this? As its only night 3 I am quite happy with DD being in bed with me but DH has decamped to the spare room!

My DD is 20 months and we've had this lately too. She has previously been a marvellous sleeper, often going for 12 hour stretches with not a murmur.

She's very aware now, so I don't want to start letting her into our bed, as as soon as she's there she thinks it's playtime.

I just go in if I hear her crying, check she's covered over (we wondered if she'd been waking because she was cold), give her dummy back, and get her some warm milk once if really upset. A friendly but firm 'it's sleep time now' with no eye contact so she knows we mean business. Sometimes she cries/whimpers for a while, sometimes she has a play with her teddies and we hear her chatting but we don't go back in, and more times than not, she goes back to sleep by herself.

We got caught up a few weeks ago with pandering to her (she'd deliberately throw her dummy out, ask for more milk, say she'd done a poo, say something was sore etc etc) but they were just tactics to make us keep going back to her so we stopped that.

Obviously if she'd had a nightmare etc and was more upset than the usual whimpers, I'd reassure her with cuddles etc but we haven't experienced anything like that yet.

my dd is 22 months and has been doing the same for a couple of months now... she has a single bed in her bedroom and will only sleep in that now. We've got a fold up bed rail on her bed and she sleeps brilliantly in there now, after 18 months of utterly crap sleeping. That said, last night she did fall out of bed, but it's very low and she didn't hurt herself, more of a rude awakening.

Could you put your dd in a low bed? Does her cot convert in to a bed? When dd wakes up at night now I just sit on the end of her bed for five mins holding her hand until she's almost asleep then I creep out of the bedroom. It seems to work (fingers crossed).

Thanks for your replies.

Yes, cot is a cot bed so can turn it into a bed but it feels like she is a bit too young to abandon the cot. Maybe not.

DD doesn't want to play or anything in our bed. She just wakes up 12.30am the last 3 night crying. As soon as I put her in our bed she goes straight to sleep which is why it has been easier to just do that rather than her crying half the night when DH and I both have to get up for work! The first night I initially left her in her cot but she cried every half hour or so until I took her into bed with me at 4am.

I know, it seems all wrong doesn't it? Like they're growing up too fast. Ds was in his cot until he was 2.8, but dd just doesn't like it. I think she likes to have a bit of a thrash about and a bed gives her more room to do it.

TCL my 23 month old has been doing exactly that, 3 nights on the trot as well! Unfortunately he doesnt just get upset, he has a full on meltdown, and nothing but bringing him in with us helps. I think we're just going to have to ride it out. His poor brother is knackered from being woken up!