Since our bed sharing days are numbered.
Currently, Audra goes to bed in her crib between 9 and 10 pm, and then sleeps in bed with DH and I from about 1 to 5am. It's been working great for us since she is ready for bed earlier than we are, but we really enjoy our bed sharing time. We've had her in our bed from the beginning, at first all through the night, but as she's gotten older and set her own sleep schedule we have made some use of her crib.
We have a queen sized bed, and my DH is a tall guy, so we are limited on space. As this pregnancy progresses, I feel like we should slowly work on getting Audra to spend more time in her own bed. Ideally, I would really like to have her comfortably sleeping in her bed for at least a month before this baby is due, since we are planning to have the newborn in our room.
Any suggestions on how to slowly phase out of bed sharing? I don't want to rush her since she is still nursing at night.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Re: Since our bed sharing days are numbered.
We started putting DS in his crib at the beginning of the night around 10 months. Around his birthday he started sleeping more of the night in his crib (not waking until 3:30 or 4 to nurse.) And within the last week he's slept all night in his crib a handful of times.
Since you're just at the end of your first trimester and she's nearing her birthday, I would give her a few more months to see if she'll sleep longer stretches in her crib on her own. You could also start sending your DH into her room when she wakes and have him try to settle her without nursing (either now or closer to her birthday). That's what we did with my DD and she gradually cut out the night nursing on her own. If DH couldn't settle her within 10 minutes I would nurse, but gradually her wake-ups got fewer and farther between. And after 13 months when she woke because of molars or eye teeth, my DH could settle her pretty easily. I think it wasn't hard because it happened so gradually. We didn't expect her to night wean or stop bedsharing immediately, we just tried to offer her other options first, but didn't force them on her. So eventually she needed the night nursing and the bedsharing less and less until she was done.
Good luck!