2 year old co sleeper

[Melsie]

After 2 years of co-sleeping I need to get my 2 year old to sleep in her own bed and room. My daughter is dependent on me laying with her until she falls asleep, a cup of milk and my hair to twiddle. I think I've made every mistake in the book and don't know where to start with helping her to become an independent sleeper. Please help?

[HenaV]

Aaah, but in many ways unbent it's been a lovely
2 years  hey. You are right though, it's probably the right time to switch things up and for your LO to have some independence.

You will need to adopt the gradual withdrawal method. Given that you have co-slept for so long inrhjnknyour first step will have to be matress on the floor in her bedroom for you with your LO in her own bed/cot to establish this is where she sleeps. Once she's comfortable
With that, you can then start IMO the GW process. It will a long road so you need to start it at a time that you know you can and will see It through. Below is a link which further explains GW. I would ignore the Wi/WO bit - that method is used for IS who generally need to get back
On track:
Walk In/Walk Out vs. The Gradual Withdrawal Method (HOW TO CHOOSE)

What do you think?

[clazzat]

I didn't co-sleep fully with mine as she used to go to sleep on her own at the beginning of the evening and then I would get into bed with her when she woke at midnight-ish, but when I decided that I had had enough I bought a sleep sheep (http://cloudb.com/UK/sound/sleep-sheep) and put it in the bed with us and turned it on when I brought her in to sleep with me. I did this for a couple of weeks to create an association with the noise and me. One night when I went through instead of getting her out of her cot to sleep with me I got into the bed in her room next to the cot, turned on the sleep sheep and reassured her without picking her up. It took about an hour and a half for her to go back to sleep the first night, and she wasn't happy but I was there with her the whole time; the second night she cried for about 45 minutes and on the third night she cried halfheartedly for about 15 minutes and then stopped. After that she slept through - we still used the sleep sheep if she did wake up, but she didn't need me in the room any more. I expect that it will take a bit longer if your lo needs you to go to sleep, but it is worth trying something similar to see if you can make it as painless as possible.

[Melsie]

Thank you for your replies :-). Last night was her first night in her new bed and she is very happy to go in it. She's also happy for me to sit next to her rather than lay with her so two very positive steps in the right direction :-). I read through the gradual withdrawal method and that sounds like the way forward for us. My question is though that she relies on twizzling my hair to get her to sleep and I have no idea how to help her to not do that gradually. My husband tells me I should wear a swimming cap ?

[HenaV]

I'm not sure a swimming caps the answer, though I like his thinking!!! I'd at least tie it up
Out of the way.

I wouldn't do anything but lay your hand on her as perhaps a substitute. The theory ring you can GW your hand - so effectively, your transferring the hair twisting to the hand - so something like no you don't need to touch mummy's hair, mummy's right here and apply the hand to her so she can physically understand the difference. She may not like It at first but perservere and she'll get there.

Great start my lovely xxx