"Co-sleeping" pondering (a bit long)

[kaylabelle05]

I want to start off that I enjoy co-sleeping. I learned from my sister that is was a VERY good idea to do especially when BFing. So I had my DS in bed with me until he was 1 then he got "kicked to the crib" in a sidecar arrangement from 1-2.5. Then I got him a big boy bed (a bunk-bed with only the top put together) with rails since he was too big for a toddler bed. When I moved to my own house when he was almost 4, he was SOOOOO excited about having his own room.

Now DD is a COMPLETELY diff story. She is 3yrs 2mo now.

I had a sidecar arrangement with her from the beginning. She still slept next to me but had the option of putting her in the co-sleeper if needed (DH didn't feel comfortable with her in the bed because she was so tiny and he is an oaf while sleeping). At 2 months old she was fully sidecar'ed because she was/is a VERY light sleeper. I would move to roll over and she would wake up. So she stayed sidecar'ed until we moved out to CA.

We moved from a LARGE bedroom to a super small bedroom and we had no room for her crib in our room. So I slept with her in her "big girl bed" and her in her crib until the beginning of 2008 (late Dec/early Jan). I started leaving her in her crib or bed and she would sleep there and wake only once to nurse about the time I went to bed.

Then I got hospitalized in Feb AND March and she couldn't let me leave her at all. So she got moved back into our bedroom on the floor. She falls asleep in our bed and gets moved to the floor. I have tried to move her to her bed but she wakes up as soon as I put her down in her room.

Now don't think that I am trying to push her out of the room before she is ready. I am going on cues from her and the fact that she doesn't sleep to go to bed well with me laying down with her at night. But DH AND our Family therapist is trying to get me to push her out of our room and I just don't think she is now. She was ok with it before but now she seems scared of being by herself.

I am just hoping that I am not the only one with a child on the floor still. I would like to eventually have her sleep in her room since everything of hers is in there instead of being in our room (space is the main reason).

If a mom does AP like it is supposed to happen, when do kids eventually "leave the nest"?

[kaylabelle05]

Am I the only one who still co-sleeps with a 3yo?

[babygirlsmom1005]

Your not

We made a big deal with my daughter on her 3rd birthday getting her a big girl bed and new bedroom furniture, etc...well 1/2 the time, she's still in bed with us. We also have a water bed, so every move, I get woke up, she's a heavy sleeper like her father is and doesn't wake easily. We have the crib side car arrangement aswell, but rarley she ends up there. I have no advise but to keep trying....I have been waiting for my DD to fall asleep and move her into her own room at nights, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and she wakes up and comes back into our room.

[Boheme]

We let our kids decide when to graduate from the "family bed." We used to have a queen/queen setup in our bedroom (2 queen beds put together to make a giant bed) that me, dh, and my 3 kids shared.

Just 1 year ago, a few months after my oldest turned 7, he said that when we moved to the new house he would like his own room. We were like, "Why wait?" So we split apart the beds and he and his little brother (then 4yo) moved into their toyroom and now it's just me, dh, and my 2yo dd in our bed. My sons have always slept next to each other, so they still have each other for snuggles. All in all it's been a very good arrangement.

We were super AP and I think that kids WILL become independent if let to develop it naturally.

I know several people with kids even older who bunk down in their parents' room every night.

You aren't alone at all!