Well, here's the story... My dh and I sleep in our queen sized bed with our 2 yr old dd and our 5 month old dd. So last night my 4 yr old ds comes in and gets in bed with us. I woke up immediately because first I only half sleep at any given time because I'm already so cramped, second because I felt someone laying on my legs. I gently told him to go hop back in his bed because there simply was no room! :eek: Oops! He started crying and said he just wanted to be with the rest of the family. :( So dh made him a palate on the floor and he slept there. I asked him tonight if something scared him last night and if that was why he came to sleep with us. He said "no, but everyone else is in there and I want to be too!". So anyhow - WWYD? Leave him on the floor. It seems like he'd still feel left out since everyone else is on the bed. We are TOTALLY out of room on that bed. *sigh* I wish they made a specific bed for families of 5 ! LOL!

~Jo

Why don't you scoot your bed over towards the wall more on C's side and put A's mattress on the floor. And then her and J can sleep there? Or ask him if it really bothers him to sleep on the palette. You know mine love their's.

Our queen sized bed is too small too....but we don't have room for a King.

Can you fit a toddler bed next to your bed? I know someone who did that.

IKEA makes this great bed that is labeled as a family bed. It's really low with padded edges. It even has "arms". Maybe something like this would help you.

What we did for a while (b/c things were too cramped w/our 6, 3, & 2 y/os) is, brought the boys twin beds into our room and put all mattresses (we had a queen at the time) on the floor w/o the box springs. It worked great for us. Then baby came and I was too scared someone would roll over on her, so we moved everyone back to their own room. Recently we got a king mattress and everyone seems to find their way back in the middle of the night LOL. We didn't get rid of the queen mattress and it is in very close proximity to the king so if anyone is feeling squished it's no big deal. Yes, our second floor IS being overrun w/beds, but we wouldn't have it any other way :heart:

My four year old sleeps in a toddler bed next to the big bed, where dh, the toddler, and I sleep. Sometimes he crawls into our bed, but the "rule" is generally "you can come in once it starts to get light out," because otherwise no one gets any sleep. Sometimes he will sleep across our feet. Generally, though, if he wakes up I can just put my arm out and pat him in the toddler bed right next to us and he goes back to sleep right away.

It's so hard when one feels left out!

Michelle

Hmm. I don't think dh would go for buying a new bed although that IKEA one sounds totally cool! Maybe I will take the matress out of the baby's crib since it sure isn't getting used in there and put it next to the bed. I just feel like it's a seperation thing and he still seems "seperated" on the floor. Kwim? Maybe seeing if annie will sleep down there with him would be good. Then we could ALL sleep better. I don't know if I could convince the queen, though! LOL! She likes being right smack in the middle of mom and dad!

wow,
i hear you mama... a queen was way too small for my 2 year old, my husband and I. What we did was fairly inexpensive and worked well for us. We devoted our bedroom as the "BED" room and moved furniture around to do this. Then we bought two very inexpensive wood futon frames (one queen and one twin) and cut the legs down so that the bed is only 3 inches off of the floor. Then we squished the two beds into the corner of the room. It works great for us and our daughter can get in and out at will. I also didnt have to worry as much about her falling off of the bed! In your case though, it sounds like adding a twin would not be enough. How about adding another queen sized bed to the mix? I know the thought of sleeping near the floor in a less traditional bed is daunting for some, but for us it has been a godsend. We all sleep so much better than before.

I hope that your find a good, inexpensive and workable solution for your family!

We had the no room problem when Allison was around 5 mo and we ended up putting her crib (sh never used alone) against the wall, took one side off, pushed grown up bed against that and we all slept together. I could roll over and nurse her to sleep then roll over onto the real bed and cuddle with her dad. Worked great.

We have a king so we have a little more room but here's what we do. Dh on one half of the bed...yes the whole half he has this fear of the edge. Anyway so I'm in the middle of the other half with the 2 yo on one side and the 4 yo on the other then when the 6yo comes in she lays at the foot of the bed.

It's kinda crowded but they don't sleep with us all night so it's a little easier to deal with. Oh there is a crib at the foot of the bed but no one is willing to sleep in it for some reason.

ETA: I fortgot to mention that I'm 35 weeks pregnant and I have no idea what we'll do when the baby gets here.

There are only 2 kids in with us..we have a king sized tempurpedic on the floor (no bed frame, but we do have a boxspring) and a twin scooched up next to it. This gives the boys lots of room, but once again I have the heat seaking missile baby squashing me out of bed every day..seems to me it doesn't matter how big your bed is..it will find a way to be too small!!

Good luck..I totally understand where the 4 year old is coming from..one of the reasons we don't move the 2 yr old is because we don't want him left out!

Have you asked the 4 yo if it's a problem to be on the floor in the same room? My big boys like being in the bed with us, but they also like doing sleeping bags on the floor. The same room is usually enough for them when they want to be with us. You never know. ;)

We have a very old queen size bed. My ds will be 5 in April and is still sleeping in his toddler bed that's right next to our bed. We go to sleep holding hands, but I wake up with him on top of me. I so wish we had an Ikea here.

I don't have any advice really. We have a king and when its just 4 of us its sorta cramped (dh ends up about in the middle and me and the kids on one half :rolleyes: ) but we have the bed against the wall so that helps a bit with not worrying about a kid falling off

A friend of mine has a seven year old (only child) and he sleeps on a palate on the floor. They have an extended house guest who sleeps in friend's son's room so her son is sleeping on floor in her room. He is quite happy with the arrangement.

I would say if you DS doesn't complain, just set up a palate or the crib mattress for him. It could just be a passing fancy for him. You might try to make his space cool - call it his "camping" area or something like that and give him a flashlight. Perhaps being there on the floor, he can feel included in the family bed but also feel special - being the oldest. If it looks like this is going to be a longterm thing, than you can try to work on making it work.

We have a king size bed and there are five of us in it - sort of. We have two toddler beds on each side of our bed. We have an Ikea bed where the mattress fits directly into frame and there is no boxspring, so the bed is somewhat low - but not on the floor type low. The toddler beds are a few inches lower than the king size bed. DS (5) and DD (3) both fall asleep in big bed. We move DS to toddler bed and he generally sleeps there all night. About 10% of the time, he comes into our bed when it starts to get light. DD sleeps in the big bed most times, but maybe about 25% of the time she sleeps part of the night in her toddler bed. We are gradaully increasing her toddler bed time without trying to pressure her.

We have white metal toddler bed frames and crib mattress fits right in them. The frames were $30 each at Baby Depot. DS is fine with the space - doesn't seem overcrowded. The toddler beds are sturdy. I mean, I sit on them and well...I am not a light person. :) A toddler bed would work next to a regular height bed too. You could try putting it at the foot of your bed. For a while, we only had one toddler bed and we had it turned so that the head of the toddler bed was at a 90 degree angel with the head of our bed which gives more space to get in/out of bed but still allowed bed to be close enough for comfort.

I would love a link to the Ikea bed!

Anyway - we have a queen with Dh, 5 month old, and I in it. Emma (almost 4) has her twin pushed up against ours. She *mostly* sleeps there. Sometimes she comes in the queen with me and then dh goes in the twin. It's not super pretty in our room, but it works and we all sleep well.

Incidentally, Emma was sleeping happily in her own bed in her own room until John was born. She just didn't want to miss out on any of the "fun." I understand!