Sleep Dilemma

No transition. Cold turkey. Start today to talk up the big boy aspect. Go to his room today and have him help choose his favorite sheets, pillow and something soft to sleep with. Praise him all day for being a big boy sleeping in his big boy bed. Start the bedtime routine a little early. After bath, take him in his own room and read to him in bed. Maybe give him one of your silky nightgowns or a pillow from your bed to cuddle with. It will smell like you. Have dad get in on the praise too. Tell him how proud he is of his big boy going to school and sleeping in his own bed. If you have to, tell him they wont let little boys that sleep with thier moms go to school, only big boys that sleep in thier own bed or they might not think he's ready for school. That will definatley motivate him. Be so very consistant. No backsliding on this! They will try you if they think there is any wiggle room. I've gotten my 5 yr old broken from it, but he still sneaks in if he's sick or if dads out of town, in the middle of the night. But thats because I let him. Dad is zero tolerance and he doesnt even try it with dad. BE FIRM!

I'd start talking a couple of days in advance like, "on Saturday you are going to start sleeping in your room....)" and each day remind him of this so he understands, maybe even do some pretend dry runs with him during the afternoon. You could close the blinds and tuck him in for fun just so he sees you mean it when you say "saturday we are done". To make it easier, make a lttle calendar he can mark the days till Saturday or do some paper rings he can rip off one a day until Saturday. If this doesn't work, you may have to go pack to the method of sitting next to him in his bed and slowly move closer to the door each night until you don't need to sit in there anymore for him to fall asleep. If neither of these ideas work, then I'd say cold turkey.

Just another option to consider, I let me kids sleep on the floor of my bedroom. they bring their pillow in and a blankie.

In your case if he doesn't sleep well to begin with, it might be better if you slept on the floor of his room while he slept in his bed.

Or you could lock him out of your room I guess, but i sure would be wondering what in the world they were doing out there in the dead of night alone. I could never have done that. but i haven't been that desparate i guess.

And in regards to the melatonin, i know someone that gave her girl this, but she also gave the girl soda and i always wondered what was up with that, maybe self treating Add or something and then the melatonin was for the side effects? not saying that you are, It's just been on my mind and i've been wondering why kids these days don't seem to be sleeping?

we do the floor camping all the time.

another option is to put a blowup toddler bed on the floor.

I willingly and lovingly co-slept with my child since her birth, she'll be 6 in Sept. Only reason we are encouraging her to move out is because baby #2 is due in 2 weeks.

We all sleep better knowing all of us are together and safe.

This is going to sound heartless but I tried everything and it was the only thing that worked. Lock your door and don't let him in. If he cries that he needs water get up and take him to his bathroom or where ever he usually gets water, help him and put him back to bed. If he says he is scared, get up and tuck him back in. The biggest thing is not letting him in your bedroom at night time.