Co-sleepers and Ex Co-sleepers and anyone else with advice!

[jennifer1981]

Ok, so we have been co-sleeping with LO since he was born and I've now decided (after many near black eyes from him dropping his arm in my face as he's turning over and pulling my hair in his sleep!) that I would like him to sleep in his cot (which is next to our bed at the moment).

Presently we put LO in our bed about 8/9ish and join him when we go to bed. I get him to sleep downstairs and carry him up. But for the last couple of weeks he has woken up about 2 hours after he is in bed and wont settle unless one of us goes to bed with him. So i am anticipating that it's going to be difficult to put him to bed in his cot.

So i suppose, what Im asking is:

1) How did ex co-sleepers make the transition and any tips?
2) At what age was LO? (or or co-sleepers what age do you anticipate LO to be?)
3) In your opinion, would you put LO into their own room (after co-sleeping) rather than into his own cot in our room and then in few months time put him in his own room? (this is because i dont know whether to go 'all out' and get everything over with in one feell swoop or do it gradually?)

Thanks for any advice!

 

[beanie]

Seren had been used to sleeping in her cot and then coming into bed with us so when she started sleeping through she just stayed in her cot. So I am no help sorry

I can however highly recommend "No Cry Sleep Solutions" by Elizabeth Pantley

 

[mummykay]

at 12mths I had had enough of gettin no kip and bein a grumpy cow so I stopped bfing Jam and put him in his own room - He HATED it and it took a gd few weeks for him to sleep by himself, I still did bath and bottle routine but he would have to be patted off to sleep rather than settle himself at first

I did it all in one swoop - bottle instead of boob and cot instead of bed all at once - hard work tho, jus gotta persevere with what u are comfortable hun

and now he sleeps thru all night with no messin, thank god lol

 

[heles7]

We made the transition at a similar stage to you, somewhere around the six months mark and we put him into the crib next to the bed at first, although we gave him a dummy as he was very unsettled.

After a couple of weeks we started using the cot in his own room and that wasn't too bad in terms of disrupting his routine. We had a chair next to the cot and we would sit with him until he nodded off giving him lots of strokes to soothe him when needed.

It's been a bit of a slog to be honest but we have just recently got to the stage where after his last feed, i put him down and walk away whilst he's awake and he's happy with that and will settle himself off to sleep.

As for what you should do, if your LO is mostly sleeping through the night, then perhaps you could go straight for babies own room. James was still waking often when we made the switch so really wanted to keep him by the bed for as long as I could.

Good luck!

 

[BabyMagic]

I would also highly recommend the same book which Beanie mentioned.

We have just recently moved LO to fall asleep in her cot instead of in our bed as worried about her falling off the bed. Tbh, even that took a while for her to get used to (in fact we are still in the process as when we came to stay in a new place for LO she was a little frightened of the strange bed).

I personally would go for a gentle approach. It is not our babies fault that we have allowed them to sleep comfortably with us - hence I would personally be very gentle with making any changes. I would put him to sleep in the cot next to your bed first, and prepare to be by his side as long as it takes for him to get settled.

They are many great tips in the book mentioned by Beanie. One of them is to play with your LO in the cot during the day time so that he will have happy memories of his cot and that he will feel that it's a safe place.

Good luck

 

[LisaJ1986]

I tried getting Angel used to the cot for quite sometime, but she was getting me up at least 3 times. My thoughts were i wanted her to get used to the cot before her own room as i didn't want to be going up and down all night!
By 8 months i had enough! The screams and the fighting were getting too much. So i went and put her in her own room.
Best thing i've ever done! The first night she woke once. Slept through ever since!