Tristan’s been sleeping in bed with me for around a year now, he’ll be 3 in December and I felt it was time for him to move back to his own room before his birthday. To be honest I felt mixed emotions about it. I absolutely love having him sleep next to me and the snuggles and cuddles I get in the morning are the best! But I also knew that it would be good for him to be in his own room before another baby comes along. I didn’t want to be pregnant (I’m not, so you can relax) and then have to move him and for him to feel he was being replaced or pushed aside!

Shaun & I did plenty of research about how to make the transition as easy and fun as possible. The route we decided to take was updating his room a bit and introducing the idea of the sleep fairy. Basically you get some new or updated furniture for their room and tell stories about how the sleep fairy comes to watch over them at night and, if they sleep all night in their own bed, leaves a small gift!

Step 1 was buying a new bed & images for his walls. We bought a bed from Kids Cove and had that delivered. We had already bought a toy box from them so knew their quality was great as was their service. The bed was delivered and a day later we flew to my folks for a weeks holiday so we said he could sleep in his new room when we got home. The day his bed arrived so did a card from the sleep fairies. (He can’t read so doesn’t matter that it says happy birthday right? Lol)

When we got to my folks house we put a mattress next to my bed, on the floor, and encouraged him to sleep there. It worked like a charm! We also told him that I’d informed the sleep fairies that he was here now (Fancourt) and could they watch over him all night. He seemed happy with this idea and, when he woke the next morning there was a gift waiting for him.
These are just 3 of the 8 gifts he’s received from the sleep fairies. They are all small and cheap so it hasn’t cost me too much.

He slept on his mattress next to me for 4 nights and then I moved upstairs at my folks house and he moved into the bed. He nailed it! Slept all night (yes my mom popped in to see him a few times) in the bed without me! What a champ!

We arrived home on Saturday and Saturday night was the first night in his own bed. He called me once in the night and I sat with him for a bit but he stayed there all night. I was thrilled and so he got what he’d been asking for for days… Ryder from Paw Patrol! He was so excited he didn’t know what to do with himself.

Today is Monday, he’s slept without me for 8 nights and I couldn’t be more proud of him! I know I will have to stop with the little gifts soon as he seems to have ‘cracked the code’ for sleeping in his own bed but, for now, I will keep leaving a little something from the sleep fairies.

If you have any questions about what I did please feel free to contact me or ask in the comments below.