Want to wean from Co-sleeping

My boys are now 22 months and have co-slept with us since birth. I am getting a little frustrated with it now (they also still both night nurse 1-2x?night) and am ready to tackle moving them out of our bed after they turn 2. Any advise from other moms who accomplished this? If it was only one kid I would feel more confident about this but our boys are so different...

 

I moved my girls out of my bed at 12 months. I will come back later to describe the process.

 

When you describe your process did you move them into cribs or beds? I am worried that they simply will not stay in bed

 

I haven't had much luck with our small ones yet (but also haven't been trying very hard), but for the older ones we got them twin mattresses, which we put on the floor. That way they had their own space, but when they were making the transition someone could come lie with them if they really needed it. Another thing to try, once they have their own space, is to have anyone but you go in if they get upset. Sometimes just not having the boobs available helps get them away from it. Finally, I have started telling my little girls in the middle of the night that "nurs (what they call nursing) are sleeping." They don't particularly like it, but they understand it. Good luck!

 

I moved my girls into one bed. With twins I would certainly do that. They are used to sleeping with others, so no reason to take that away from them until they ask for it. Decided, and maybe talk with them a little bit too, about where they will be sleeping. In individual toddler beds? Together in a twin bed? Together in a double bed?

I moved mine into a twin bed that had custom built (by my BIL) rails. The whole middle of one side opened with a gate and I could get in bed with them. I was still nursing them to sleep when we transitioned at 12 months. So I would lie down with them at night. I put one with their head at each end of the bed, would nurse one to sleep, then turn around and nurse the other. I weaned when one fell asleep on her own one night while waiting her turn to be nursed. If they woke up at night I could go back in there and open up the bed and get back in with them.

When they were two they started potty training. Their bed is lower to the ground than a typical bed so we took the gate off entirely and they were able to climb in and out. But because they slept with their heads at either ends and only the middle section of the matress was without rails, they did not fall. They were free to get up to use the potty. Or come into my room to my bed if they felt the need. I'm a very light sleeper so I was usually awake at the sound of the first foot hitting the floor. I could help them with the potty if they needed it or just wait and see if they needed it. For the first six months, pretty much any waking at night meant they would come back to my bed, not theirs.

By three they were mostly going back to their bed.

I never once told them they could not come into my bed and now at five they never do.

So while I inticiated the weaning from cosleeping, I let them do it at their pace and I gave them a couple of years to be fully weaned from it.

 

Thanks for the run down of your process. I am not sure my 2 could be in a bed next to eachother with the amont of moving around they do - I separate them in our family bed and get the brunt of it. I am deffinately getting rails for the twin beds when we do get them!!