Co-sleeping... how long?

luckygirl07

So, before DS was born, I said I didn't want him in the bed with us because everyone we know has told us they can't get them out of the bed later (at 2 and 3 years old). ?We put the pack-n-play in our room, but the first few nights, he was wasn't sleeping well in the pnp, so we put him in the bed with us and now he sleeps sooo good at night. ?He's 3 weeks old now, but he was born 2 weeks early, so I still feel like he's still so little. ?Even during the day, after feeding him, I have to hold him until he falls asleep. ?

If you slept with your DC in your bed, when did you transition them out? ?Can you really "spoil" them this young??

CindyandScott

I'm laughing because this is totally us. Reagan didn't make it into our bed til a little bit later. We only brought her to bed when she would have her early morning feeding and then we would stay there. Abigail on the other hand has been in bed with us since the second night. She sleeps better there and seems to need to be touched. This of course means that mom has to be the one to touch her all night and she seems to scoot closer and closer every night though I'm not sure how.

With Reagan when she stopped nursing we then transitioned her out of our bed - Around 13 months. I don't personally believe that you can spoil a newborn. I also think the tiny ones seem to have more of a need to be held but I may just be telling myself that this time around as Abigail is much smaller then Reagan and seems to need to be held more.

Don't beat yourself up over it. Do whatever works best for you guys.

kat.in.the.hat

We are weaning Marion out of our bed now - and have been working on it since 3.5 months.

The first three months, she slept in a Boppy sleep positioner which was awesome.  Josh called it her little "mattress" and because she associated being in that with being asleep, she could sleep wherever we put her mattress.

We have a queen sized bed, but got spoiled with a king over the holidays, so when we came home, our bed seemed way too small for all three of us.  So we started transitioning her out of our bed.

What we did was we bought an extra contour changing pad and put it on the floor next to our bed (our bed is a loft bed, so it pretty much sits on the floor too.)  The first few nights, we put the Boppy positioner in the changing pad, but because we used a contour changing pad, the sloping sides made her feel safe and snug so we were quickly able to get rid of the positioner.

Our next step is going to be to move the crib mattress into our room and let her start sleeping on that.  At first, I'm sure it will be the changing pad on top of the mattress, but since we still swaddle her, hopefully she'll feel secure fairly quickly just on the mattress alone.

Then we'll just start moving the crib mattress further and further out of our room a little at a time until she's into the nursery.  Now, it may be that she goes straight into a toddler bed instead of a crib, but we'll cross that bridge later on.

We don't expect her to be out of our room and fully in her own room until close a year, and we're okay with that.  My husband wasn't fond of the idea of co-sleeping at all at first, but once we came up with a plan to transition her to her own bed, he's felt more in control of the situation and less like we'll end up with a ten year old that still sleeps all night with us.  Over the weekend he had baby night duty and woke up Saturday morning saying how nice it was not to have to get out of bed to feed her

kat.in.the.hat

Also, in his Sleep Book, Dr Sears has a really good chapter on co-sleeping.  And even though he advocates it into toddlerhood, he has some really good advice on weaning them into their own bed. The whole book is pretty good, but that chapter has been my reference when we have co-sleeping questions.

G-love

Isabelle co-slept from the day she came home till about 6 months. I never thought I'd be that mom, but I'm so glad I was.

then we co-slept only after she woke up in the middle of the night, she'd go down in her crib but wake up around 3AM and come to bed with us. that all stopped when she started doing full nights of sleep around 10 months.

I slept better and I know she slept better for the first few months being secure and in bed with me, and I felt the same way, she was so little, and I felt the closeness was good for us all.  do what feels right for you. books and people will all give you advice, but only you know your child. 

Kimmer123

G-love:

Isabelle co-slept from the day she came home till about 6 months. I never thought I'd be that mom, but I'm so glad I was.

then we co-slept only after she woke up in the middle of the night, she'd go down in her crib but wake up around 3AM and come to bed with us. that all stopped when she started doing full nights of sleep around 10 months.

I slept better and I know she slept better for the first few months being secure and in bed with me, and I felt the same way, she was so little, and I felt the closeness was good for us all.  do what feels right for you. books and people will all give you advice, but only you know your child. 

Thank you for saying this! This is our situation. I can get him down in his bed at about 1030 and anywhere between 130 and 4 he usually wakes up and I bring him with me. I was worried I'd have a 15 year old in bed with us. Thanks!

aprilprincess

I still don't consider myself a technical co sleeper, but we did it for naptime for over 9 months (she finally made the switch to a crib for naps happily). I also did CIO for bedtime once she was STTN. Go with whatever works for you if you're both getting rest. Even as someone who did CIO (at bedtime at 3 months) I don't think you can spoil a newborn.

nvp05

I also thought I would never co-sleep with my baby, but we did it for 3 months. She just would not sleep in her crib or pack n play. We used one of those sleep positioner wedges and it worked out fine. And it made nursing at night much easier. I had to stop nursing after 3 months and around that time we moved her to the pack n play in our room. She stayed there until she was 5 months old and then we slowly transitioned her to the crib.

I would also bring her back to bed with us when she got up around 3-4 am for a feeding. I don't think you can really spoil them when they're this young. She now sleeps in her crib for 11-12 hours a night.

horn_jm@hotmail.com

G-love:

Isabelle co-slept from the day she came home till about 6 months. I never thought I'd be that mom, but I'm so glad I was.

then we co-slept only after she woke up in the middle of the night, she'd go down in her crib but wake up around 3AM and come to bed with us. that all stopped when she started doing full nights of sleep around 10 months.

I slept better and I know she slept better for the first few months being secure and in bed with me, and I felt the same way, she was so little, and I felt the closeness was good for us all.? do what feels right for you. books and people will all give you advice, but only you know your child.?

?

We had a similar experience - except it went on for over a year but less than 18 months. ?I think you just have to do what works for you. ?DS now sleeps great on his own bed in his own room. ?I did use some tips from the No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers, but some of it he just did on his own.?