28 month old hates her bed - shall I get the cot out of the loft ?

[Scatterbrain]

Well - two very sleepless nights later - my 28month old dd has told me she hates her bed and wants her cot back up !!

Am inclined to do it for a quiet life !

She's completely out of nappies and had been a very good sleeper (7-6) until now, recently she started waking us twice a night to go for a wee-wee. Being in a grobag and cot meant we had to be involved of course - and as she has had a bed in her room for months which she loves rolling around in I thought she would be OK although she had previously refused to sleep in it at night. Someone suggested that was because she could still see her cot - hence it's total removal !

Am too tired to think straight after no sleep at all last night - dh thinks she's simply not ready for a bed, and of course GF says not to move them to a bed until they're 3. There's no need for her to sleep in the bed really I just thought it was time and that she's be happier in it - so don't know what to do !!! Please help !!

What she does is get straight out of bed the instant we leave her, we've tried sitting with her until she's asleep and reading interminable numbers of books, but she just appears not to be tired - although she definitely is - she then screams "I want my daddy", "I want to wee wee" etc etc whilst shaking the stairgate. We've repeatedly put her back in bed - calmly at first tyen increasingly crossly - but all of it has no effect. Beginning to wonder if she is in fact mad !

Please advise - I am clueless !!!

OK - don't all rush then !!! You must all think I'm mad !!

dh obviously does too as he has just stormed home from work, taken the cot out of the loft and re-erected it and gone back to work and she's now sleeping in it !!! I've just ordered a bigger grobag too !!

Think I'll wait now until she's asking to sleep in the bed - it's too much hassle otherwise !

I think that you have done the right thing - otherwise if she hates it that much and you kept her in the bed, she may never settle there - IFKWIM.

I would leave it now until she mentions it herself, but I wondered if you could take the bed out of her room, just leaving the cot - as it might be that she just sees the bed as a 'toy'.

For what its worth my dd1 was 2 and 10 months before we changed her cotbed into a cot - and she told us when she was ready to 'take the sides off'! - I was quite happy to keep her in the cot at night - as I thought she would be out of the bed as soon as we had gone downstairs - in the event she does always stay in it - apart from a few nocturnal visits to our room !

Since you've gone back to the cot the only thing I can think is to try to reduce the nighttime potty requests - eg give less fluid in the evening, lift before you go to bed or something like that.

Also what about giving it a while and then trying the bed with the grobag and then when that is established move onto conventional bedding - might be easier with a slightly more gradual approach.

Note - these are just hypothetical ideas - my 24 m.o. DS is still very much in his cot.

haven't got time to post more, but it might be worth persevering - my dd1 moved to a bed at 2 and 7 months and I thought we'd done the wrong thing, she WOULD NOT settle - but after a few nights she did and we've never looked back - more later...

I haven't used the Gina Ford books on either of my DS's so I know nothing about them apart from what I've read on the fantastic mumsnet but can I just ask something?......Exactly how big would a 'Gina Ford' cot need to be for a 3 year old to sleep in comfortabley, I know cot-beds are bigger but all the 3 year old I know would be too big for one. My DS2 (20 months) is in a bed now as he just couldn't get comfy in his cot anymore and it wasn't small by any means.

Oh Scatterbrain, I see she's back in her cot already...well my dd1 had a blue fit when we suggested going back in her cot (after several sleepless nights). Eventually we had to get tough and insist that she stayed in her bed (we threatened to shut her bedroom door if she didn't stay in it), I actually posted quite a lot about it on mumsnet. She soon calmed down and started sleeping in it - we got rid of the sleeping bag too and just went for it with the duvet and everything. My advice would have been to tough it out for a few more nights and just see if there was any improvement, but if she's back in the cot already...

If its any help at all, my old thread is called 'Is my toddler telling me shes ready for a bed?'

Emma - my DS is 24 months and has plenty of space in an ordinary cot in a sleeping bag with a full sized pillow.

Just thought I would say that my dd just went into a 'big bed' at the weekend, she is 2.6. I would have waited until she was 3 personally, just to get my money's worth out of the cot! We started talking about the 'big bed' a couple of months ago, telling her what a big girl she was getting. She doesn't like being called a baby anymore and refers to herself as a big girl now so we thought it the perfect time to introduce the bed. We played it as if we were giving her a treat for being such a big girl. She loves it. The benefits of leaving it until they are older is that they are so used to having to stay in their cot until you get them, that they do the same in their beds. And there's no need for a stairgate as she's old enough now that we trust her not to fall down them. She's not even fallen out of bed so far.

So my advice is to wait until they are about 2.6/3 years old.

We put ds1 in a bed at 20 months as he started to climb out of his cot.

Thanks everyone !! She's eventually gone to sleep tonight in the cot - but very disturbed, probably just mega overtired from the last two nights of bad sleep ! Ended up giving her Medised - I know I'm a bad mother but she needs to sleep as much as I need her to !!

Will try again in a few months !! Definitely plenty of room left in the cot for another few months growth, and at least she can't escape with her grobag on !

Don't know why I started this now - better to have left well alone I think ! That's the trouble with peer pressure - you think yours should be doing something because the others are - must be mad - have upset dd and self by this !!! Wish had left well alone !!

Thanks again everyone