Please Help Me - Night two of bunk beds... Sobbing Flameboy

[Flame]

He hates it

Sobbing his heart out.

He's had about 2 hours sleep this evening, and now nothing I do will pacify him bar him being in my arms downstairs (and even that took 15 mins)

My heart is breaking

I don't know if it is the bigness of it (he has always liked being in small spaces - moses basket, scrunched in corner of cot etc), the top bunk closing him in too much, or what.

I tried making a little duvet nest so that he was surrounded and just covered with his blankets. I tried laying him on the duvet and just covering him with blankets. I have even resorted to putting the duvet on the floor for him to sleep on top of it.

I have now walked away and am leaving him to sob because I am at wits end.

The change was a necessity - he was vaulting from the lowest cot setting (he is just a good climber, he is only the size of a 12 month old), and I thought he was safer in a bed.

Help me please - even if it is just to repeat the old failsafe of "This too will pass"

Can't stop crying which is doing nothing to settle him.

oh flame! so to see this.

can you put the mattress on the floor next to it for a while? make up the bottom bunk as a sofa or den or something, so he gets used to it in a happy way... then try him in the bed again in a few months>?

or... take the top mattress off, so he can see through the slats above.... hang some mobiles or something from them, make a kind of canopy round the bed, like a camp...

any of this maybe help?

does it convert into two singles? if you need somewehre to store the other half, you can bring it here!

Oh, Flame

Is the cot still up? Can you put him in it with the side off? Or would that make it too rickety?

does it have a guard rail on it?. is it that he feels unsafe, that he may fall out? has he said anything about why he doesnt like it?

His sister might be pissed off if I swipe her mattress

We can't fit them as singles in the room the danglies might help though... I think I might get the travel cot back from mum's and he can have his sleeps in there whilst we acclimatise him to the bed.

DD was so easy - we had a toddler bed, didn't intend to put her in it right away, just put it in her room until we could get in the loft the next day... she got on it and refused to move for bed - never an issue since! (Odd really since she is the one who doesn't do change well)

Flame, would it help if you lay with him until he falls asleep? I know it might not be something you want to make a habit of but it might stop the crying for now anyway?

Also, as nappies suggested, make the bottom bunk a place he plays during the day so he associates it with fun things, amybe have it as a snuggly place for story reading?

It's only day two, it will get better as he gets more used to it, "this too will pass"!!

Can he have daytime naps in the bed, maybe, and sleep in the travel cot at night for a bit? That's how we got DS1 into a bed - he loved his cot, but we needed it for DS2!

i have a cot bed you could borrow... is fairly sturdy and has 3 good safe feeling sides (if used as cot bed, obv you could have other side too if you wanted it, but you wouldnt would you)... is kind of bateau lit style... is currently standing in barn, so you are welcome to borrow for a year if it would help?

Cot is in bits in my bedroom - it was too rickety with just one side

It could be that he feels unsafe, but he sleeps by the ladder and his legs are only just longer than it iyswim so it is like having a barrier.

He hasn't got enough words to tell me what is wrong

oh poor him, and you.

would there be room for (my) cot bed? it is lower and smaller than a bed, and has the look of a cot (high sides) with the one side off, it is a big step closer to a proper bed...

I really need to take a drive to you Nappies - the barn?!

I think I'll get the travel cot tomorrow and see how that goes For tonight I guess I am sharing a bed

You are lovely

i know...

but seriously, yes you do need to come here... and take a look at the cot bed. i really think,if you have room for it, it may help you out and i am honestly able to lend it for a year or more...

I'll give it a try for a week with the travel cot, and if there is no joy, then yes please (space is an issue which is why I want to try all other options!!)

He came down for about 10 mins, long enough to settle him... took him back up and put him on the floor/duvet job I created, and he snuggled, then sobbed - I have come back down to make a fresh bottle in the hopes of it settling him, but all is suddenly quiet.

Spoke too soon... whimpering again. I'll take in the bottle and leave him another 5 mins to see if it works.

I can't believe how easy DD was with the change - as long as it had her duvet on it, she was happy!

good luck - funny (ha bleedin ha!) how different they can be, eh?

anyhoo -off to bed myself.
sweet dreams, when you get there!

Well he woke at 12.30am - said "poo" (has never said that before ), and indeed he had done a huuuuuuuuuuuuge poo...

Changed his nappy and snuggled him up on the floor and he settled nicely and fell asleep easily

Now not sure if the screaming was tummyache and sod all to do with the bed or he fell asleep easily because he was exhausted.

I guess we'll see tonight (no idea what I'm gonna do about nap time

Oh dear Flame I have a very long bed guard which is nearly the length of a single bed minus space for a bedside table if you think that will help. I know Nappies have offered butwe are definitely finished forever (as in I am never ever ever having another baby ever ever!) with DS's cot & it is OK I think with 3 sides up. Give me a shout if you'd like either.

yes, ds2 got up last night and wouldnt go to sleep. we thought it was coz he napped in the car on the way back from my dads yesterday but he finally crapped in his night nappy and i realised it was his tummy afterall.

hope it was just the tummy and the bed is ok tonight!

try the bed at naptime... i liked the psychology of whoever said to use the bed for naps and the floor for nightime... bet he'll demand the bed at night before long...

offers open anytime, but equally am not in the slightest bit put out if you dont want it!

Nappies, I do apologise, I have trodden on your toes. I've got a stomach bug and am not quite with it. Sorry Hope all the ill children are better very soon.

Knew someone who's daughter had the same reaction so they let her sleep in her old bed and kept the new bed up. Slowly without pressure she decided it was all ok after all and never looked back.

oh no chocteapot, not at all! please dont think that i think we were both just trying to help. good grief, im not so easily offended, honest!

lol @ you two fighting to give me cots

atm he is asleep on the floor again, mainly because he fell asleep in the car and it was easiest to just plonk him down where the bedding is! He did stir as I brought him in the house, and asked to go upstairs which I'm taking as a positive sign - he will at least still go in the room

Tonight I will offer him the bed or the floor and go from there. Will see if it was bed related or tummy, if he goes the screaming route again, then I will get danglies sorted and the travel cot.

could have been the poo thing

yay for new word though!

How is your ds tonight Flame?