Toddler Bed-To Early?

If he sleeps better with a pillow, let him. I think each kid is diffrent, my daughter loves pillows... where I on the other hand hated using pillows till I was like 7, still some nights now I go pillowless. lol. :)

D.-
Congratualtions on the (SOON) arrival of baby #2!

I highly recommend that you get the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". I came across that book whne my (now 6 year old) son was an infant and I still refer to it once in a while.

In that book, I think you might find that you should try putting him down earlier, rather than later. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I have found it works! Get the book and it will explain everything. :)
Good luck!
J.

I put my son in his bed when he turned 1. At that point he would take longer to fall asleep and would wake up in the middle of the night cause his foot would get stuck. Once we put him in his toddler bed we put up the gate in his doorway and it took a few nights of him sleeping by the gate but then he slept way better.

This is going to sound a bit harsh, but have you tried leaving him in his bed? Without an extended stay in his room by either of you? Rocking him to sleep isn't allowing him to fall asleep on his own. I have a 2 1/2 yr old, and I completely understand your situation. He is a bit older than yours when #2 came along, 25 mths, but he was a bad sleeper too. When we were breastfeeding, I would frequently feed him to sleep. When I was in my 6th month prego with #2, we moved, and he got his own bedroom. Before he was sharing a room with us, and could easily see us. We were lazy so when he woke up, we just put him in bed with us. So he got his own room, an d spent the first few weeks in his crib. We set a date for him to move to his big boy bed and mentioned it frequently, and that when Gonzo (just a nickname!) was big enough, Gonzo would sleep in the baby crib. Now he's sleeping great in his big boy bed, and in just the last 2 weeks, has stopped waking at least once during the night, every night.

We gave #1 a regular sized pillow very early. I don't remember how old he was, but his crib was still next to the bed for nightime feedings. He had a head cold and sleeping flat would make head hurt, so we gave him a pillow to prop him up. It was a pretty hard pillow, so he couldn't really roll over and bury his face in it. But a toddler pillow may work to try for you!

Maybe throw a "last night sleeping with mommy and daddy" party, or give him big boy bed and show him where there is a pillow and blanket under your bed. So if he wakes and wants to come in, he can but needs to stay on the floor. Or, bite it in the backside, take the weekend, and make him stay in his bed. The nights will be long, and it will be hard (we've done it a few times with #1). Good luck!

My kids are 16 months apart, so we moved our daughter to a toddler bed at about 18 months of age because our son needed the crib...she got up A LOT in the first month or so. We ended up gating her into her room and letting her "cry it out" a few times until she realized that this was time for bed and she should stay in bed.
She uses a standard twin size pillow with the toddler bed.
You could try and switch your son, but realize that the freedom of the toddler bed will probably not improve your sleep situation too much at first.
Just read some of the other responses...I agree that he may need to go to bed earlier...at 17 months, my daughter was still going to sleep around 7 pm. She is now almost 20 months and is just now starting to go to bed around 8 pm.

the needing you is a phase. my boys are 23 months apart. i would have to sleep on the floor next to crib. then when we put up his new big boy bed he and i shared a twin alot.

i never wanted my kids to sleep with me so i never put them in the bed. i know it would have been so much easier that way- but only for awhile. so if my kids needed me i would sleep with them.

it lets them build self confidence in being in their own room and they know you will appear if needed. a security they will internalize and give them confidence in alot of areas of life.

:)

I put my daughter in a toddler bed at 18 months because she was climbing in and out of her crib and I was afraid she was going to fall and break her neck. It was a tough transition because they can get out of bed at any time but within a week she was used to her new big kid bed and the fact was she could get out of her crib anytime she wanted to as well.
I used a bedrail and the wall to make it so she wouldn't roll out.

I gave my kids toddler pillows at 13 months.

I am sure your little guys sleep issues have more to do with the fact that you are having a new baby and he can sense that his life is going to change. I bet that you are hoping he is going to be the easy one now that you are going to have a baby. My little good sleeping toddler needed me a lot during the night for first month after my little guy was born. There were many nights that I had both kids in my bedroom so I could get some sleep. It did not last forever and when the older kid feels secure they will sleep in their own bed again. Good luck and try to be patient, he is still a baby himself.

My daughter did the same thing right up until we had our son. She was 19 months when we had our son. I think they just sense something is going to happen, and that disrupts their sleep. We kept her in her crib until she turned 2. After we had our son, she went back to sleeping just fine. Congrats on Baby #2!

sure giving him a pillow at night is no problem! :D

good luck. sleep is always such a touchy subject. you could try putting the matress on the floor of your room if you have the space - it sounds like you dont have to cosleep, just having you in the same room helps - so i would try that. if you dont have room for the matress, just set up a little pile of blankets or soemthing that he can lay on - whatever works.

the best thing to remember about kids is that they need us around - night and day. nighttime parenting is just as important as daytime. i understand you have a baby on the way and you are tired, but thats no reason to stop listening to the needs of your son. he is going to have needs, and if hes this way now, after baby is born his needs will only get stronger, and you can set him up for sibling rivalry if you dont have a balance. as far as getting that balance, im not sure what to tell you - but just make sure that every day your older son has time during the day with just you or your husband (preferably both) so that he doesnt think the baby is more important. sure baby will be more demanding, and have strong needs as well, but you know...

i would invest in a sling for your baby. moby wrap is the one i found more comfortable.

good luck
www.askdrsears.com might be a great resource for you.

Hi! You mention in your son's bedtime routine that you rock him to sleep. It is pretty likely that your son is not used to putting himself to sleep, so when he wakes up in the night, he doesn't know how to go back to sleep on his own. Try putting him to bed when he is tired, but not asleep yet. As other moms have said, you will probably have to go through a few rough nights of crying it out, but it will get better!

Good luck!

We put our now 4 yr old into a regular bed when my 3 yr old came along. He did very well and never had any issues. On the other hand, I put my 3 yr old in a toddler bed at 18 months, and she will not sleep in it. She usually falls asleep on the sofa or loveseat. If I carry her to bed, she wakes in middle of night and goes back to where she was sleeping before. I've given up on moving her to her bed. At least she's not crawling in with me.

We had a lot of luck with our transition to a twin bed for our son, which we did sometime before he turned two (I don't remember when exactly). We had the good fortune to have a three bedroom house, so we kept "his" room (the nursery) his sleeping room and set up the twin bed in the other room (formerly an office/guest room). We slowly moved his toys over, and encouraged him to nap in his big boy bed. Eventually he wanted to sleep in his bed. He had been waking nightly about the time you're saying, and crying for us to get him. The twin bed allowed him to scoot out and come to us, which we liked. He was in bed w/ us nightly from 2 until 3 1/2, which was several months after we had baby. We SWORE to ourselves Baby wouldn't be in bed with us (it was not a family bed belief thing; it was a "I need some sleep and this seems to be the only way" thing) but around 3 months we realized he was up 5-6 times a night and we not-so-gently kicked out the 3 1/2 yr old and brought in the baby. Despite the indignity of that situation, it actually worked well--I think our oldest was ready to be sleeping better (he tossed and turned a lot with us, trying to snuggle in; nobody slept WELL). anyway; that's my story--hope there's something helpful there!

We gave our daughter a pillow around this age--it was a regular pillow, but pretty thin/flat. We checked with our pediatrician and she said it was fine. Double check with yours. Good luck with the rest--I don't have a magic answer--sorry!

If he is having trouble sleeping he may actually be going to bed too late. "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" is an excellent resource. My son is 17 months old and goes to be without a peep between 6:30 and 7 and sleeps until 7 or 7:30 a.m. I know it sounds wierd but overtired kids don't sleep as well. Best of luck!

Congratulation on the upcoming new arrival. Bedtime can always be a challenge wether there is another new arrival or not. I guess that I would wondering why he isn't sleeping all night to start with. Could be seperation anxiety in which you will need to be strict and settle him down but do not allow him in your bed or laying down near him. With the new baby on the way you are going to be too exhausted to have to deal with him and the new baby. A toddler bed might do the trick. But be resilant that he must now be a big boy and sleep in his bed all night. It may take a few nights of an upset little boy but in the long run it is going to be better for the 4 of you.

I would go for it. I have a 4 year old, 2 year old and six month old so my older kids were kicked out of the crib at 20 months each. My middle was a terrible sleeper, waking up sporadically. Some nights would be fine, some she would be up a few times a night, inconsolable. She wasn't the type to be awake for hours, but still, not great for sleeping. We were hesitant about moving her to her bed thinking it would just make things worse but it had just the opposite effect. She fought it for about ten minutes the first night - we let her cry it out and she crawled back and and we have never looked back.

Her bed was made with sheets, blanket and comforter along with pillows and her animals. Every kid is different but hope this helps.

I switched my oldest son to a toddler bed at 1 months old b/c he was climbing out. He really didn't sleep in the bed at first but preferred to sleep on the floor by his door. For my other two we switched a little later around 18-20 months with less problems. We also put a baby gate across their door so that they couldn't wande the house at night without our knowledge.

As for pillows we gave them a pillow as soon as they were in a toddler bed, I thought they took up too much room in a crib and made me nervous. I normally start with a smaller travel pillow-it seems to fit them better.