Co-(non)sleeping 18m old making a break for it

[bookwormthatturned]

Hi

Our 18m old DS2 has a bedside cot and sleeps in it / in our bed. He's taken to waking up in the night crying and wanting to roam around the bed and get down.

I've been cuddling and shushing him but have been trying not to BF him back to sleep as he's been (more or less) night weaned for the last few months. So, I'm left with a v mobile DS2 determined to roam around the bed and get out.

It ends up with virtual wrestling bouts with me trying to hold him / his gro bag to keep him from getting to the edge and falling off the bed - not conducive(sp?) to getting him or me back to sleep .

Putting up the side of the cot may sound the obvious answer but DS2 has never slept with it up and it's likely to just upset him even more.

Has anyone else had similar issues? Any advice??

Many thanks

I

bump??

bumpity bump??

Is is just me then? Does everyone have beautifully behaved co-sleeping toddlers who stay where they're put?

Perhaps I should resort to superglue, or toddler bondage

No advice, mine were similar, started sleeping better when they reached 4!!! Be very boring at night time, we lay pretending to sleep when toddler tried to play, just kept saying night night and putting him back to bed if he attempted to leave the room, eventually he gave up and still woke up a million times but would cuddle up, stick his foot in dh s mouth and fingers in my eyes and go back to sleep.

This might sound drastic, but we have a double mattress on the floor next to DS's cot-bed mattress - also on the floor. We're in a small room, so if he decides to roam around there's really no-where to go and nothing to do. Plus he can't fall off anything higher than a mattress. This generally means that I can pretend to be asleep until he thumps me with a soft toy to wake me up... I'm not saying it is ideal, but we muddle through with it for now. He's 15mo - sorry should have mentioned that earlier. We've made no progress with the night-weaning and if all else fails I've been known to fall asleep on my side with a boob hanging out. Weird job, motherhood...

Oh I feel for you though your descriptions made me smile and all familiar! I sympathise a lot and exhausted here though in a different boat as just feeding DS (16months) back to sleep a million times. He is great on beds though as not in a gro bag and safely slides off whenever he wants not that that necessarily is a good thing!!
Dd had to sleep with us on a double mattress on the floor too that took up the whole room... And finally started to sleep through aged 5 which I hope is unusual as our nights are exhausting...

Sorry no good advice but masses of solidarity and empathy!

My 16 month old is similar.

I ended up with the mattress on the floor too it doesn't stop him escaping but it means he can't fall out whilst scrabbling towards freedom and get hurt,

Thanks for all the replies - it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one with a night-time escapee!

I'm beginning to think mattresses on the floor is the way to go - we're having building works done at the moment so will be moving the bedrooms around. It may be an opportunity to move DS2 into a room with DS1 (who's 6) on a ground level bed with me on a mattress beside him.

The night-time antics are wearing but, having unintentionally slipped into co-sleeping, I've found it such a lovely bonding time I'm loathe to look to end it completely - who needs sleep?