Will bedhopping become a thing?

[Timeturnerplease]

(Just) 5mo old DD2 seems to be finally settling down a little with sleep. Did 11 hours straight at 2 months, by 3 months it was hourly wakes and now back to a four hour stretch, bottle, then a three hour stretch.

After the second stretch she cannot settle in her next to me crib for more than half an hour at a time. However, if I relegate DP to the sofa and bring her in with me she will then sleep another two hour stretch. Works well as it then keeps her quiet until DD1 wakes at 6.

I have no experience whatsoever of co sleeping as DD1, though a crappy sleeper, just found the presence of another human far too distracting to switch off. Even now at 3 she cannot sleep with us.

Will this eventually become an unbreakable habit for DD2? At the moment, touch wood, she mostly self settles for bedtime and after the first wake so I don’t want to mess with that magical ability by encouraging bedsharing, but equally this seems to work a treat!

Does anyone have any experience of this kind of bedhopping situation? I have a sister ten years younger that me who as a toddler used to get in everyone’s beds in the middle of the night but I can’t remember when that stopped….

Yes, my DC always started the night in their own beds and went down easily, but would often end up in our bed at some point in the night!

Oh goodness….would they bedshare with others? We have an overnight at the end of this month that shouldn’t be an issue as DD2 hasn’t developed a mummy preference yet and thus my mum will just being her into her bed for the early hours. However, she’ll be almost a year when my MIL has them both overnight for my sister’s wedding…..

I still bedhop unfortunately, and my eldest is almost 9, although he has Asd. I end up lying next to him so he can fall asleep, and then again when he wakes in the night. And youngest is 4 and randomly gets up now and then too!

My DD is 3.5 and usually comes into our bed in the early hours of the morning- she sometimes does the same when she stays over at Granny and Grandads house and doesn’t seem to mind sharing with different people

Ok, encouraging that they’ll do it with others! Both my mum and MIL are delighted at the prospect of early morning cuddles (DD1 was a wriggly, fractious non-cuddler) but I didn’t want to make life hard for them when they offer rare overnights.

I must admit I am enjoying the cuddles myself, though that’s probably because I know she’s our last baby.

We co-slept with DS on and off from the beginning, sometimes it was the only way he'd settle. Often he'd start the night in his own bed and end it in ours. We eventually put a stop to it a few months before he turned three. His sleep at that point was awful, I would send up to an hour sitting with him while he went off, he would have multiple wake ups which would end with me lying on his bedroom floor and then he would always be in our bed from about 5am onwards. Sometimes earlier if he'd woken so many times I just brought him in with us so I could sleep. It took about 2 weeks to crack it but it was worth it and he's now 4 and mostly a pretty decent sleeper.