Parents struggle to get toddlers to sleep in their own rooms

“Hello fellow parents, I’m in need of some advice for how to handle bedtime demands that end in screaming tantrums for my four year old daughter. Since 2.5 years old we’ve really struggled with her sleep. Lots of screaming/crying at night and we’re at the point now where we have to stay in her room until she falls asleep and then she will always wake up sometime in the night and we let her come in our bed. Had to do this to survive 😅 Her new thing at the moment is to keep demanding things at bed”

“I am convinced that our role reversal has us completely screwed up. I’m not saying only a mom can be the stay-at-home parent, but clearly, stay-at-home dads are in the vast minority. I am one of them. I feel that my role reversal is killing me. I don’t know if anybody else can weigh in on this, but when you have a working parent and a stay-at-home parent, and the working parent is the father and the stay-at-home parent is the mother, I feel like there are clearer lines. The dad goes to work. The”

“i bed share with my 16 month old. i just found out im pregnant and im exhausted and struggling. i want to move my baby into their own bed but i have no idea how to do this gently and without CIO. any tips or advice? submitted by /u/marissaaaababyy [link] [comments]”

“My 14m child has been in daycare since she was about 5 months old. She really struggled with sleep in the infant room, rarely ever getting more than 35 minutes to a nap. So we were excited to move up to the 1-year-olds room after her first birthday where everyone would be on one nap, hoping that would solve our napping woes. There were few weeks there where she seemed to do pretty well on the one nap, getting anywhere between 1.5 to even sometimes 2 hours in during that one nap. But recently thi”

“We have a 3 yo daughter and an 11 month old daughter. Both have been amazing sleepers the past 6 months sleeping in their own bed and crib in separate rooms. We recently moved to a new home a little over a month ago and our 3 year old has slowly regressed in sleeping. She suddenly says she is afraid and makes us leave the door open when she is going to sleep so that she can see/hear us in the living room. We usually close her door when we go to bed, but then a few hours later she screams until m”

“Okay so I did flag mental health because this is more about me and less about my baby. My son is 8 months old and teething and struggling to sleep. My husband is a snorer and also leaves for work pretty early and needs an alarm. He's a very heavy sleeper and so an alarm is necessary for him. We have tried having me wake him up. We have tried vibrating alarms but nothing wakes him up like his siren alarm does. The baby has slept in a crib next to the bed next to me since he was born. He is gr”

“Hi guys I'm just after a little advice basically on if having my 3 year old wear nappies overnight, while she seems to be in a period of wetting the bed, would be a practical solution or a psychological step backwards for her. My kid has been potty trained for about a year, and with that also had successfully transitioned to wearing regular underpants overnight. This has worked without issue for literally months, but over the last few weeks and without apparent cause she suddenly has been we”

“So there are definitely a few reasons why this may be happening but I just wanted to hear other people’s experiences with this. We have a 6 month old little boy who is usually great at going down for the night. We still have him sleeping next to our bed in a pack n play for a little while longer so that’s what I mean by refusing his crib. For the last 2 months or more he’s been going down at night like a dream pretty much 90% of the time and sleeping through the night the majority of the time as”

“I have a 17 months old daughter and I was bed sharing with her since she was around one month. She had a crib and she was next to me at the first month but then I just felt weird to be far away from her even though it was next to my bed so started bed sharing. But honestly when I learned that it's dangerous and not recommended, she was already four months old. Luckily bad things didn't happen but I know I was also very careful, I have a huge bed and I'm a very light sleeper. Anyway,”

“Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice because I’m exhausted and not sure how to handle this. My daughter is 20 months old and has always been a pretty good sleeper. Before this started, her usual sleep schedule was: Night sleep: 8:30 PM – 8:00 AM Nap: 1:30 PM – 3:30-4 PM She used to sleep through the night. Occasionally, she would wake up, but she would usually settle herself back to sleep without needing us. She recently got sick with a respiratory virus, had a fever for a short time, and ha”

“Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice because I’m exhausted and not sure how to handle this. My daughter is 20 months old and has always been a pretty good sleeper. Before this started, her usual sleep schedule was: Night sleep: 8:30 PM – 8:00 AM Nap: 1:30 PM – 3:30-4 PM She used to sleep through the night. Occasionally, she would wake up, but she would usually settle herself back to sleep without needing us. She recently got sick with a respiratory virus, had a fever for a short time, and ha”

“Hi! My husband and I recently started our 16 month old in part time day care 3days/week. He has always been a very shy and timid baby. We have been doing mommy and me, baby sign language, and toddler play classes multiple days a week since he was 6 months old to help with this. He has not gotten better throughout the last year socialization wise and is still very scared of other kids and adults. We thought the next step would be to try daycare and since we are expecting baby #2 in January we wan”

“Planning on going away for a wedding for one night with my husband while we leave my son at my parents. He’ll be 5.5 months when we do so. Has anybody left their baby overnight at that age? How did you do and how did the baby do? My son lovessss my parents but I’ve obviously never been away from him for more than a couple hours. submitted by /u/twlightmom [link] [comments]”

“I’m part venting, part looking for advice. My husband recently left his job to stay at home with our two kids (ages 1.5 and 3.5). I do believe his staying home is what makes sense for our family right now but I’m struggling with the new dynamic and distribution of labor. My husband is very involved with the kids but I’m still the one carrying A LOT of the mental load. It’s certainly not all fun and games for him, but he gets to do fun things with the kids during the week while I’m working and ru”

“Me and my partner have a boy that’s almost 7 years old. We’ve had a solid routine for many years, eat, then pee, brush teeth, wear pijamas, go to bed, we read him a story and then lights off and we stay in the room until he falls asleep (which is rather quickly these days). The issue is the getting ready part. He will take an ungodly amount of time to do the most basic things, getting sidetracked by every possible source of distraction that is at arm’s reach. This has been going on forever and o”

“My 7mo old has only been in daycare for a month and the illnesses are making life so much harder. My husband and I are fighting over how to support our daughter when she can’t sleep because she’s so congested and coughing. We’re both sick as well - and frankly I’m so tired of my husband complaining about it because his threshold for being “sick” is so much lower than mine. I’m still going to work (at home) when I’m exhausted and feverish and up with the baby at night while he sleeps in the guest”

“When my daughter was under around 2-3 months I noticed our existence woke her up in her bassinet next to our bed, my husband has allergies and coughs a lot, so she went to her room. She slept great, I fed her to sleep, did a dream feed that we slowly dropped around 8 months ? She got her first tooth at 13 months so that's when I started implementing another method to fall asleep. Aquarium on YouTube while having milk, brush teeth, and in bed. All this to say, my daughter seems like the type”

“TLDR: we have a big, wild son who was climbing out of crib at 20 months so we transitioned to toddler bed. Now it takes him two hours to go to sleep every night. Help! As tldr says, he’s just now 21 months. Way too early to be moving out of the crib, but it was getting unsafe with him climbing out and falling over the edge (even in his sleep sack - he’s an animal) and my wife doesn’t trust the safety of the add-on crib nets. So now he has a bed and we try the same routine, read him stories, turn”

“Any help is appreciated! Our son will be two in December and all of a sudden sleep has become a battle of wits which we are losing. He has been in a toddler bed for 4 months now and his bedtime routine has not changed at all. Dinner, brush teeth, 2 books then into bed and his nighttime projector goes on. Once the music finishes (after 10 minutes) mum and dad leave and it's sleep time. This has been working fine until 2 weeks ago. Now when we leave, after 1 minute he will hop out of bed and c”

“My 6 almost 7 year old still needs us to put him to sleep at night like full on lay down and cuddle him. He almost always wakes up in the middle of the night and gets into our bed. I hadn’t minded as Sigh, it’s killing me a little because I need my alone time. We’re trying to motivate him with a trip to our treasure box if he makes it 5 days putting himself to sleep and sleeping in his own room until morning. Well last week was the first week, he made it 5 days although he did mention waking up”

“This issue has started approx 3 months ago but is progressively getting extremely bad especially the last 1 month. He won’t sleep no matter what and I am at my wits end going insane - I’m a single mom with limited options Whether it’s a nap, or bedtime he is fighting me to the extremes. It doesn’t matter how much or how little he slept the fight is the exact same every single time. He just wants to play. He won’t relax. He won’t lay down and let me rub his back. He won’t lay down and let me rock”

“My son is six and he’s big. He refuses to sleep on his own, crying or begging us every night to let him in our bed. I can’t handle it anymore. I seriously can’t stand it. I tried to get him to sleep on his own as a baby but my MIL and Wife could not let him cry it out. And now they’re just so used to it that it’s just part of life. I’m starting to have irrational anger towards my son because of the lack of sleep, lack of intimacy, lack of privacy with my wife. I wake up tired and grumpy, I try t”

“I'm struggling so much with getting my 2 year old to sleep. I've been co-sleeping and breast feeding up til now, but I'm ready to stop. But every attempt to get my kid to sleep without nursing has been absolute hell. He won't take a pacifier, he refuses water, throws his teddy across the room and screams. I've tried putting him in his crib, but then he just stands there and screams. He's absolutely impossible to get to calm down, he goes from 0 to 100 in a second. Bedtime”

“To sleep train or not to sleep train. I’ll try to keep this short… 7 month old I’ve been bed sharing since week 1 We live in a 1 bedroom spot Husband has been sleeping on the couch Baby is rocked to sleep and sleeps 4-5 hours first Then I try to pat her to sleep with the first wake (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t) If it doesn’t I feed her to sleep Then it’s waking every hour or two to suckle And that is what’s getting to me We tried pick up out down method at 5.5 months and did it for”

“Hello! I have an almost two year old who has never bed-shared before and rarely ever room shared beyond 4 months of age. While he is low sleep needs, he has always slept better alone, usually sleeping through the night unless teething or sick. He learned how to climb out of his crib very early on and is now in a queen sized bed and does extremely well. He loves going to sleep in his bed. However, we have a trip coming up and it would be really convenient if him and I could share a bed, but every”

“Hey! I need some tips, tricks and advice for my sweet girl who has no issue napping but struggles to fall and stay asleep. Let me start this off by saying I have a 5 year old, who was always a good sleeper (minus a few regressions). My 3.5 year old has never been a great sleeper, but never used to be this difficult with it. Every single night it is a fight to get her to sleep. We do our routine and once it comes time for a kiss and walk out she cries and screams. We have tried so many things to”

“I’m currently 8 months pregnant, and have a 2 year old that co-sleeps with my husband and I. We plan on having our newborn in her basinet next to my side of the bed. I’m worried with how bedtime is going to work out, because my husband works until midnight-3am depending on the work load. Who do I put to bed first? If I get my newborn to fall asleep first in her basinet and then try to get my 2 year old to fall asleep in our bed, I’m worried about him waking up the newborn because he loves to bab”

“We have always coslept with our kids, it worked great for us. As they got bigger we put them into a double bed together as they didn't like being alone (fine, who does?) and we always cuddled them to sleep which I loved. They are now 5 & 7 and won't go to bed without being cuddled to sleep by ME. It goes up and down but we are in a phase of them screaming fucking murder anytime their dad tries to put them to bed. They mess around, scream for me, won't lie down, go out the room et”

“Need advice as myself and spouse are at the end of our tether. Our eldest daughter (now 2.5 years old) began sleeping entirely through the night at 2 years old. One day, the sleep training just worked. PJs, brush teeth, stories, cuddles, lights off, shut door, see you in 12 hours. It was such a luxury, especially seeing as our second child came along in June. To be able to shut the door on one LO and turn our attention to the other was a privilege. Then, about a month ago, our eldest got a stoma”

“She turned 4 in August and bedtimes usually consist of one of us in her room for AN HOUR until she winds down and falls asleep. Whenever we try to leave she screams and panics and tries to follow us out. Tonight was a dream. submitted by /u/N0bodyGetsOutAlive [link] [comments]”

“My 7 month old son has outgrown his bedside bassinet but he falls asleep better when his dad or i lay in our bed next to him. The crib is obviously too small for one of us to crawl in with him & he loves to roll around in his sleep. Another problem w the crib is his legs getting stuck between the slats. Ive looked into the mesh slat covers but the dont look like theyd work for him. We just got a full size mattress for his room in place of the crib & i plan to put mattress bumpers so he w”

“Turning to Reddit again for some parenting advice/tips! lol. My son is about to turn 1, and his whole 1 year of life, he’s been a contact sleeper. We have fought it and struggled with it since the day he was born—no exaggeration. We’ve always struggled getting to him to sleep in his bassinet or crib or anywhere by himself. I tried so hard and spent so much money trying to make the bassinet work. especially the first 3 months while I was on maternity leave. But after that, I had to go back to wor”

“Hi Dad's! I'm a full time stay at home Dad. Our daughter is 14 months old and has been cosleeping with us since she got sick at 9 months. We really want to transition her to her own room/crib but she tends to have a hard time sleeping and need support 2-3x a night, some times more. I know the first step is naps in her crib, get her used to the room and bed, and after that I was thinking putting her down to sleep in her crib each night and when she wakes up at midnight or 1, bring her int”

“TL;DR 2yo is waking up in the middle of the night and I can’t take it any more. I need help dads. For about the past 4 months, since we switched my two year old into a toddler bed, he has been waking up between 3 and 4 am almost every night screaming crying. Some nights it’s an easy pop in, calm him down, and lay him back in bed but some nights, like last night, that little boy is AWAKE. Like ready to play and get into shenanigans awake. It is absolutely destroying his mother and I. I am a liter”

“Any advice or products for when we transition our baby girl to her own room? She is 4 months and she is just sooo loud! I won’t do it quite yet but maybe 5 months I will move her but would like to know. submitted by /u/NextFee2923 [link] [comments]”

“My 2yr 2month old is amazing but she is like something possessed when it comes to bedtime. The minute she is out of the bath mayhem insues. Any tips or tricks are welcomed. submitted by /u/dasgutyah [link] [comments]”

“My daughter is 14 months old and has always been a terrible sleeper. When she was only a few months old, she could stay awake for 6 hours at a time (I know that sounds hard to believe). She wasn't even necessarily fussy or crying—she'd just be awake and chilling. She's always had a serious case of FOMO. She co-sleeps with my husband and me. I honestly hate co-sleeping and have always felt like a bad parent for doing it, but it's the only way we've been able to get any sleep m”

“9:30pm. Sunday (last night). I was downstairs watching TV. Wife was already upstairs in bed. Bedtime routine with only child (6 yo) usually starts around 8:30 on weekends and 7:30 on weeknights. Last night we let her stay up a little longer because we had a friend over who is a teacher and wanted to do some extra reading and playtime with our daughter because she doesn’t get to see her a lot. Normally- We read books and do normal nighttime activities and say our goodnights and most of the time s”

“My husband and I are trying to transition our 6 month old to sleeping in her nursery and it is not going well. She's been a fantastic sleeper since she was born other than when she's been sick. But she does not like sleeping in her room alone. She'll randomly wake up and cry until one of us goes in, makes sure she has her pacifier, and either rubs her back or snuggles her. We've been trying to spend more time in the nursery so she's more familiar with the room, but other than”

“Alright. My toddler just fell out of the toddler bed while asleep. First her head was hanging off for a bit, then her arms and upper body were off, and then she kind of just slipped all the way down to the floor. It’s a toddler bed so no higher than maybe 8 inches off the ground plus a 4 inch mattress. And she was already most of the way off when she slipped. Should I be worried? She didn’t wake up and cry. I went in there and actually moved her mattress to the floor and plopped her back on. She”

“Looking for some advice and suggestions on what I need to consider. I have a 4 month old sleeping in a snoo bassinet and an almost 3 year old (she’s 2 years and 8 months to be exact). We also have a 2 bedroom apartment. I’m looking for advice on cribs and a toddler bed. My oldest is still in a crib. My baby is outgrowing his bassinet. The goal is for the two to share a bedroom but we won’t know how they will sleep at night in the same room. I’d like my toddler to sleep in a toddler bed and the b”

“Looking for some positive feedback/advice in regard to transitioning kids to sleeping together…my husband and I have always wanted our boys to share a room eventually (currently 2 and 4). Both our boys were originally sleep trained but it went to crap when they hit the age of 2. I have have been sleeping with my 4 year old for the last year or so and my 2 year old has been progressively getting needier at night which is really a nightmare for my husband. We are considering putting them in a bed”

“Esteemed dads, help a brother out. My daughter is 3.5 and we have always struggled with sleep. For 6+ months, my wife slept in her bed to get her through the night. We managed to extract her from that over the course of a few weeks but the issue is that my daughter wakes up several times a night and demands my wife come into her room to help her back to sleep. Sometimes she just needs to go to the bathroom. She is perfectly capable but acts helpless at night. Other times she is ‘scared’ or can’t”

“My son is 5 months old and currently me and my partner have not moved out yet but that means that, because we primarily sleep at my house, with everything being set up there for my son, I feel like out of obligation we have to stay at his house too, and honestly I don’t want to, not because I don’t like his parents, his parents are great people. But it’s kind of expected that we stay there multiple times a week. I’m kind of worried that my son is going to get to a point where it will be confusin”

“So since the beginning my baby has been refusing to sleep on his own so we have been co-sleeping. I am with the baby on one side of the bed, and husband on the otherside. It's working GREAT except for one issue, the constant snooze button. Seriously, i am going crazy. It is at least 5 times in a row when he is free from work or work in the evening. I don't know how many times he does it during morning shifts because I usually sleep through it. The problem is that I some nights wake up li”

“We could only get our baby (almost 5 months now) to nap via contact naps, so we got a sleep consultant in who encouraged us to try putting him down for naps in his cot in a pitch black bedroom + white noise machine. It worked. He now goes down for naps very easily, gets himself to sleep no problems (and is subsequently now sleeping 11 hours overnight with no wake ups). No complaints, we are thrilled with this and know we are very lucky to get this overnight sleep. But he has 3 naps a day, and it”

“I have three children, and they have two bedrooms between them. Currently 6f and 3f share a bedroom, while 6month old is in her own room for now. Probably before the baby turns 1, we will have her swap with 6f and then she will share a bedroom with the middle child. I have a monitor in both rooms. The one for the big girls is mainly for the younger one (though at this point it’s arguable she doesn’t even need it). In any case, there will be a time in a few months when 6yo has her own room and sh”

“Hey guys, I’ve been trying to parent my 1 year old daughter the same way I did my 3 year old son in terms of sleep. Our son was a co-sleeper, but our daughter wants her own space so we got her a cot. Now she won’t fall asleep when she wakes up for her 2330 feed, and instead I find myself up until around 0200 getting her back to sleep. Obviously this isn’t great for my professional life. Last night we had a revelation, and after she tore a chunk of my wife’s hair out getting her to sleep after go”

“Hi all, apologies if this is the wrong forum! My SD(7) since she was 3.5 has been sleeping in her own bedroom in a bunk bed. She got a bunk bed to help ease the cosleeping as my partner could no longer co-sleep with her. Since then, bedtime has been hit and miss, we have always had some problems, but for the most part it's been manageable. For the last year or two, she has been sleeping in her own bedroom with a routine of upstairs at 6, and telly / iPad until 7pm and then bedtime. Recently,”

“Hi all, My SD(7) since she was 3.5 has been sleeping in her own bedroom in a bunk bed. She got a bunk bed to help ease the cosleeping as my partner could no longer co-sleep with her. Since then, bedtime has been hit and miss, we have always had some problems, but for the most part it's been manageable. For the last year or two, she has been sleeping in her own bedroom with a routine of upstairs at 6, and telly / iPad until 7pm and then bedtime. Recently, she went away for a week and a half w”

“What’s your advice on floor beds? Currently we have our 1 year old in our bed to fall asleep however she wakes on every transfer to the crib and sometimes it’s ruining nap time. My only worry is her waking in the middle of the night and trying to get out (we’d prefer one that has a rail)- all advice & experiences are greatly appreciated! submitted by /u/wowpeoplearecrazy [link] [comments]”

“My family figured out the solution to the kids nighttime sleep issues. I commented this in another thread and people found it helpful so I figured I’d share. When my kids (M4 and M1 at the time) moved into their room together, they would not stop messing with the lights. Ceiling light. Night light. Lamp. Other lamp. Any light you could think of, their little feet would patter, and then BOOM so much light. We tried everything. We set expectations, we redirected, we had consistent consequences, ev”

“My two year old we put into bed, say good night and leave. But for my 5 year old we have to lay on the floor until he’s asleep. There was a solid time between 2-3.5 years where we could just say goodnight and leave him but since then he wants us to stay with him until he falls asleep. Part of me thinks it’s not a big deal and one day I’ll miss our little chats in the dark, but as I type I’ve been laying in here for an hour unable to leave and it’s driving me nuts! submitted by /u/FIt”

“Me and my husband have recently been thinking about switching our baby from our room into her own room. I wanted to get other people’s insight on when you switched your baby to their own room and what baby monitor you used, if you did. For some background info - we are first time parents and my baby is currently 3 months (14weeks) old and EFF. She is also a happy spitter and on a partially hydrolyzed formula. For the first two months of her life we actually slept on the couch in our living room”

“I’m not sure what else to do but I’m really spiraling. We have three kids, an almost 4 year old boy and twin girls who just turned 1. Our son has always been a difficult sleeper. Super long bedtimes, waking up all night, difficult to get back to sleep. We had a one bedroom apartment when we first had him and he spent most of his night in our bed. By the time he turned we moved into a house and had his own room but my wife spent most nights sleeping in there with him. Before the girls came I talk”

“Hi everyone, we've got a 8m old (in cot next to our bed) and a 2yo old (in her own bedroom). How old are you kids when you move them out of your room and into a bedroom? Did you put them together into the same bedroom? Or separate bedrooms? Cheers appreciate it 🥰 submitted by /u/RecognitionMediocre6 [link] [comments]”

“Desperate to see if anyone else has overcome these particular bedtime struggles. I have a 4 yo, 2 yo and 5 month old. Oldest 2 have always needed to sleep in my bed all night and have me sit there with them to fall asleep. They take HOURS! To fall asleep, no matter how exhausted they are. They wake up multiple times. They’re up for the day at 5am, earlier if they’ve fallen asleep late (after rolling around for hours trying to fall asleep) I cannot possibly stand it anymore. We’re all so tired. I”

“Help! My one and a half year old is struggling so bad to go down for naps and bedtime. I’ll start from the beginning. She is a “half night co-sleeper” if that’s a thing? She co-slept as a baby and never sleep trained and was EBF (no more bottles or breastfeeding now, only a sippy of milk offered before bedtime and 50/50 if she takes it). She typically would take 10-20 min to settle with rocking then transferred to crib where she napped perfectly and would sleep half the night. Now going down for”

“Just as the title says. At what age did you decide to move your baby into their own room instead of the basinet in the bedroom? How did you know it was time? And how did it go? submitted by /u/boraboralt [link] [comments]”