Our kids haven't ever been in the habit of starting out the night in our room, but occasionally we allow our son to sleep the entire night in our bed and have since he was really little. He always starts in his room and usually ends up following our "ninja rule" and hops in our bed sometime in the middle of the night, many times not until it's nearly time for us to get up. The ninja rule basically says that if he can stay only if he comes in like a ninja where we can't hear him, feel him, and if he doesn't wake us up, but the moment we're woken up by him he's out. Our room has bamboo floors, so of course there have been times when I'm sleeping lightly and hear him come in but I usually pretend to be fully asleep just so I can watch his method of trying to be secretive and quiet; it's hilarious to see how light-footed he is as he quietly sneaks across the floor, selects the most un-intrusive spot to climb up the footboard between us, and then quickly and deftly slips under the covers between us. Our daughter hasn't quite mastered the art of being stealthy and has a habit of kicking me in the nuts when she sneaks into our bed, so fortunately she almost always ends up staying asleep in her bed until we finally have to go to annoying lengths to wake her up. "Leave me alone! I still sleepin'!!," is her morning cry, whereas our son awakes early and is ready to go like he's just flipped a light switch from asleep to "GO!!!".
outerlimit wrote:
Cosleeping worked great for us. Until our child could roll over she slept in a bassinet pushed right next to the bed because it isn't safe for a baby who can't roll over to sleep on a soft bed. Once she was able to roll over she slept in our bed right between mom and dad. Our pediatrician said that as long as everyone is sleeping that any sleeping arrangement was fine. One of our neighbors had a daughter about the same age and were so sleep deprived that they were at their wit's end. I suggested cosleeping. The very next day I saw a furniture truck come to their house. That was the first good night of sleep they got since their daughter was born so they were replacing their queen size bed with a king so they would have more room for everyone. At 5 my daughter moved to a toddler bed in our room then she slept on a bed roll just outside our room then she moved to her own room.