Any ex co-sleepers out there?

[NIE]

Hiya,

I'm looking for your experiences please.

The time has come for us to give up the co-sleeping. We are not getting any sleep now because DS wont lay at peace.I can't even get out of bed to go to the toilet without him waking up.

Can anyone out there give me some advice on the first steps to him sleeping on his own.

This is our routine at the moment.

9pm - He goes into his own cot which is attached to the side of my bed without any bars at one side.
1am - Wakes up and crys non stop until the second he comes into our bed.
2am - Constant kicking, punching, biting, slapping and turning upside down while sleeping.

Many thanks. xxx

 

[chickadee1976]

Not much advice but didnt want to read and run

I didnt co-sleep but from some replies ive read on here in the past you have to be firm and consistent.

I would recommend putting up the bars of the cot and when he wakes lay a reassuring hand on baby till falling asleep.

If this doesnt work id say move the cot into his own room and try controlled crying.

I think you may be in for a few sleepless nights

 

[Snuggle]

Cant help I'm afraid, we co-slept but only til 9 weeks then Moo went straight into her cot in her own room That was a really useless reply wasnt it Sorry, hope someone is along to help soon

 

[leckershell]

Ryan was the other way round, we rocked him to sleep in our bed (on a blanket) and then moved him into his cot where he stayed. I can't remember how we phased it out, a lot of crying I think, and stroking his back and head while he was in the cot.

 

[jayla's mummy]

im in the same situation except jay wont sleep in her cot at all! not that we have 100% tried to get her in their but the times we have,have failed. she is going to be 1 next month and i want her out! i need my bed back

 

[mrs h]

Hi i dont want to scare you but judah is almost 2 and i cant break the habit of him crying from his bed and finally ending up in mine.
He too scratches, crawls over my face, kicks me, lies diagonoly and at the minute i have to face him when hes in my bed i cant turn over or lie on my back as he wants me to cuddle him and so he can see my face otherwise he screams.
I wish i would have beeen a bit stricter when he was younger as im getting no sleep at all. let me know if you find something which works

 

[lisa&alex]

hi hun..

ted went into his cot about 5 months...i had enough he was waking aobut 30 times a night.. and we were disturbing each other.

before he went into his cot he wouldnt sleep in there at all..even for a nap ion the day he would be with me.. he suckled to sleep.. so when he weaned from breastfeeding i used to feed him in his cot with my arm through the bar.. i used to sit with myself out of sight till he went to sleep.. then snuggled him up and put my t shirt next to him.. so he could smell me.. then snuggled him all up with blankets so he kept warm.

he hasnt slept in with us since. i havent even had to do the pick up put down thingy..

 

[Xena]

I have no advice sorry Alex is exactly the same - plus he feeds off me all night too, just to make things worse.

 

[fothers]

Hi NIE,

I was going to post a similar thing. We have co-slept for 2m or so after a couple of months before that of her waking every hour. To start with it was fine but now she takes over loads of bed etc.

Are you BFing too? Maisie feeds loads during the night too.

Our night is like this-

7pm- Bed (our bed) She normally goes down easily with me lying beside her and nursing her. She lies on our bed with the bed guard at one side and a pillow at the other.
9.30- We normally go to bed around then and she stays on top of the covers til she stirs then we move her under and she feeds again

She then feeds normally every 2 hours or so and we are up for the day at 6am ish.

We have only left her overnight once when we had to go to a wedding. My mum came down to stay at ours and co-slept with her and she stirred a couple of times during the night and my mum tried to give her a bottle which she was not impressed with so gave her a dummy. She whinged slightly for a few mins then went back to sleep.


We were talking at the weekend about how to stop doing this and I think we will need to do it in 2 stages. I think it would be best if OH co-slept with her on his own for a few nights so she stopped feeding through the night and when that hurdle had been overcome then get her back to her cot.

This involves effort from OH though so he has decided that maybe he isn't that fussed with the stopping it after all Every time we see the MIL she says 'so when are you going to sort out this sleeping thing' which was beginning to rub off on OH til he realised it might mean night time effort from him.

I would also be fairly happy now to maybe switch to formula for going back to work etc in October but can't see how we could do it if she is still co-sleeping as she just won't take anything during the day.

The other thing is that is holding me back is that we have a good bedtime routine going now and get a couple of hours to ourselves before bed and the nursing to sleep on our bed works for naps too.



Anyway that turned into a big essay and didn't have any solutions for you I will be very pleased to see replies from people that have BTDT

 

[NIE]

Last night went well. He went into his own cot at 9pm and stayed there until 4.15 this morning. He stirred a few times but I was quick enough to let him feel me touch his arm and he fell back over.

I am hoping that if I keep this up, we will be able to move the cot away from the bed and put the bars back on.

 

[MattM]

That's good to hear!

We've had Luke in with us for part of the night for the past few nights just so Debbie can get some sleep. He too feeds loads more during the night than he does during the day - mainly for comfort. He's already a little wriggler and I often wake up with his fingers in my mouth or being smacked in the face by his dummy.

It is really, really cute when he wakes up, rolls on his side to face Debbie and starts chatting to her, though.

 

[muppetmummy]

Logan slept in my bed until he was 11 weeks old and the breastfeeding came to an end. I then put him in his cot next to my bed with the side off and he slept fine the first night
He's now in the cot with the side back on, but it's still beside my bed. I reach in and hold his hand when he wakes up to settle him. He didn't seem bothered by the change, but then he was still very young when the co-sleeping ended.
Good luck!