Our successful bed transition tale :)

michellepeanut

Back story: We bed shared with a our LO from 3 days to 4.5 months old.

From about 1 month onwards we tried to have our LO nap in her crib, without CIO. If she wouldn't settle we would pick her up and rock her or let her nap somewhere else but at least once a day we tried to have her nap in her crib. 

Starting around 2.5 months we started a bedtime routine and at the end we would rock her to sleep and put her in her crib. If she woke up we would try and get her to stay in her crib by standing beside it and giving her a pacifier. If she got upset or wasn't sleepy we brought her downstairs until we were ready to go to bed. If she stayed asleep we brought her to our bed when she woke up (usually around 10pm) or if she was content but awake we would leave her in her crib until we went to bed. 

 Around 4 months we started to nurse her in her room when she woke up and put her in her back crib either sleepy or asleep. If she got upset or was hard to settle we would bring her back to our bed so everyone still got a good night sleep.

 Now at 5.5 months she usually starts her bedtime routine at 7pm, is rocked to sleep by 8pm and goes to sleep in her crib. She wakes up around 10:30 for a top-up and then sleeps until about 3:30am, wakes up again sometime between 6/7am for another meal and then goes back to sleep until 8am (we usually bring her back to our bed at 6/7 but sometimes we put her back in her crib). 

 I have no desire to night wean her and we all seem to be getting more sleep. Just wanted to let you know what worked for us  

KateLouise

Awesome. It's great when things work smoothly like that.

Our LO generally goes back down easily after her 1030 feed, but then will wake every couple of hours if she's not in our bed. If she's in our bed, then she just goes to sleep, and maybe wakes around 5am to feed. 

ashleylchapman@hotmail.com

That's great! Your backstory is the same as ours. Tonight I am going to try and get LO to sleep in the PP beside our bed instead of in our bed.  I've been trying to get her to take naps in her crib for the past little while but am the same as you - if she isn't settling I let her nap wherever I feel she is going to settle.  I love bed sharing with her but last night DH told me he had to take my hand off her face in the night! I guess I must have been more exhausted and just a different sleep than normal because usually I'm such a light sleeper now and wake to even her slightest movement. So that scared me a lot and her safety is so important to me. I also feel like I will have a hard time falling asleep with her in the bed now because I would be afraid I would do this again or roll over on her or something. I'm in no rush to move her into her own room at nights though because I feel most comfortable having her in our room and in the mornings around 6am she starts a really light restless sleep and needs a lot of caressing to sleep well.  She is also only two and a half months old right now so I'm not going to rush anything. I don't even know if she'll be in her own room by her 1st birthday lol and that's fine with me . Whatever works right?!

michellepeanut

Yep We were planning to try and transition her around Christmas but she was keeping us up at night because she was moving around so much and I think we were keeping her up too.

2junebabies

Congrats and thanks for sharing! I have wondered when parents typically transition from bed-sharing or co-sleeping to putting the baby in her crib. This is good to know. And on a different note, Annabelle Grace is what my husband and I want to name our baby if she's a girl.