When did you put your baby in their own room?

[Saltytomato]

My DS is 4 months old and I plan on keeping him in mine and my DHs room until he is 6 months, however a lot of my friends from antenatal class have already got their babies in their own rooms. They say their babies sleep better through the night etc. My DS still wakes at around 2am and 6am for food so it is handy having him nexto me, but my husband wakes him up throughout the night snoring, cracking his joints and farting! It's driving me a bit insane, I just want to do what is right for my baby. Do you think SIDS advice or him getting a good sleep is more important? Thanks!

[Gigondas]

You will get varying advice on this as it is an old Mn favourite.

Fwiw both of ours were in their own room at 6 weeks - neither were prem, had history of respiratory issues and we don't smoke (so lower on risk factors). Plus did the toe to base ,Cool room and baby in a FTP bag and cot to our bed distance is about 10 feet (plus kept monitor on).

We all slept better and felt with precautions above was best for us but others have a different view.

[Gigondas]

Gro bag- lord knows what an FTP bag is

[Ragwort]

About three weeks - and yes, I know it's not recommended but it worked perfectly well for us - DS has always been a brilliant sleeper and perhaps it was just luck but I also believe it was because he went into his own room, at 7pm and learned to self-settle and yes, I did follow GF .

[Rikalaily]

Dd3 is still in our room and she's 2.5

I tend to move them in with the others around this age but we would need a triple bunk and we haven't got the money atm so she's staying put for now.

[Nevercan]

It was about three weeks with first and second as they were both very sniffly babies and we disturbed each other

[MissMilliment]

I'm at the opposite end of the scale - DD was 2 when she went into her own room, but that's mainly because I was on my own with her from birth so found it much easier to have her in with me as there was no-one else getting disturbed when she woke up. She went into her own room when we moved house, and settled straight away.

DS was about 6 months old when he went into his own room and that worked out fine too.

[NewMumJuly11]

I kept my DS in our room until he was nearly 6 months old. I had to move him out a little bit early as he was getting too big for his moses basket and I wasn't going to buy a crib just for a couple of weeks! In his room we had a video monitor with movement sensor pad and this gave us plenty of piece of mind although I did find having to get out of bed to bf a bit of an effort .

[Rubirosa]

About 5 months. SIDS peaks between 2-4 months so you might want to wait til after that, and consider if you have any other risk factors - eg. I don't smoke, ds was breastfed, he slept on his back so I felt safe to move him at 5 months. If he was a tummy sleeping ffer then I might have kept him in with me a bit longer.

[TheLaineyWayIsEssex]

Ds moved into his own room at 15months (when we moved house as it made sense to do it all in go) it was fine.
I always planned to have him in with us for at least 6 months, and as he was still waking for dummy replacement/tucking in a couple of times a night til past 12 months it was just practical too. We did keep each other awake, but to be honest I still don't sleep as well as I did pre-pregnancy so wonder if it is just something that happens when you become a mother? Am I destined to never sleep through until he is 18?
My advice would be to keep your ds in with you until at least 6 months- and until such time that he is not waking for feeds so frequently - to save your own sanity.
you could always evict your DH!

[mumnosGOLDisbest]

ds 6 months, dd1 8 months, dd2 still with us at 8 months and will be untill dd1 sorts her room and makes some space

[Fairylea]

I put both my dc into their own rooms at about 6 weeks. I know the sids advice etc etc etc but to be honest you could worry about every tiny thing and drive yourself mad... we don't smoke or drink at all ever,I have a very good baby monitor and I am very very careful to put them to bed in the correct bedding for temperature etc.

For me personally my bedroom is my sanctuary. I like to have my own space and be able to read in bed with the light on. I also want to be able to have sex with dh in our bed !!!

In my experience both babies have slept better in their own room. But I think this is also to do with a good bedtime routine ... pitch black room wIth blackout curtains... bedtime bottle... no talking... short cuddle... down to bed.. if they dont settle we pick them up and put them down again until they do.

Dd was sleeping through from 9 weeks from about 8 till 6am and ds now aged 4 months goes down at 6pm and wakes once at 4am. It works for us.

[LittleWhiteWolf]

DD was in her own room at 9 weeks and sleeping through.
DS is still in our room. We were co-sleeping at first, then he needed more room so I set up the cot with a dropped side next to my bed which is where he sleeps now. His room is STILL not ready but will be sorted next week, when he is 6 months old. I'm very nervous; on the one hand I wonder if he and I might sleep better if not waking each other up (my reason for moving DD), but then again he still wakes during the night for feeds. That being said I'm never sure if he is waking for feeds or if he wakes, but feeds back to sleep. Am very conflicted about it all.

[Bongaloo]

DD's nearly 5 mths and I've no intention of moving her to her own room anytime soon.
The idea of getting out of bed and walking about to resettle her in the night just doesn't appeal, compared to the way I just have to stick my boob out of bed at the moment, as her cot is butted up to the bed with the side off, so I hardly need to wake up.
I am interested though, in these stories of babies sleeping better in their own rooms.

It sounds like your DH could do with his own room

[ZuleikaD]

Heaving a sigh at the old idea of a baby monitor being any good for SIDS. The point of keeping them in your room is that they can hear you - not that you can hear them. Having a 'good baby monitor' is neither here nor there unless you have the receiver in your room and the monitor in theirs!

Both DCs stayed in our room until they didn't need feeds at night any more - about 10m.

[Bongaloo]

Yep, thinking about it some more, we'll spend the winter in together and I'll maybe have a rethink come spring.

[Fairylea]

I know a baby monitor doesn't prevent sids. But it does mean if they are sick in the night then I will hear them and wake up and see to them. Also just so I know they can call me if they need me or want feeding !

[Thumbwitch]

I moved DS out at just shy of 6m - because we co-slept up until that point, and at that point we were actually starting to disturb each other. So he went into his cot to give us both a chance to sleep more soundly. The first time he slept through the night in his cot I woke in a flat panic - but he was fine.
But, if he woke too often in the night to start with, often I'd bring him back to bed with me, purely because I thought it was too dangerous to feed him while sitting in the armchair in his room if I was nodding off.

Grobag became essential as well, as feeding him to sleep and then putting him back in the cot without would make him wake up again (temp change, I assume).

[calypso2008]

Straight away DD1 was in her own room. She slept through the night by 12 weeks and there has never been a problem. She is now 4 and has always slept prefectly and loves her sleep. I also did a routine though!

Not sure how SIDS is prevented if they are in your room and you are asleep?
You can't prevent SIDS, just try and lower risk factors (smoking etc)

[Bellakins]

I moved my baby out at 5 months. She was a very light sleeper and difficult to settle after waking (read: impossible) and so even turning over in our bed and rustling the covers was enough to wake her up. I also slept really badly with her in the room, it would take me almost an hour to drop off at night after I'd put her down. It was exhausting! I did co-sleep for a portion of the night but that stopped working too, as she just became so wriggly and kick-y and stopped all involved sleeping. Once I made the decision that I would no longer bring her into bed to feed, and was happy to do it on a chair in her room, that was it really.

Within a few days in her own room she was sleeping 7pm - 6.30/7am.

Obviously SIDS was a major factor for me, but I took all of the reasonable precautions I could. It should be entirely your decision though (not random people on the internet!), and one which you and your partner feel comfortable with.

[PickleSarnie]

It's obviously a good idea to keep them in your own room for 6 months but what do you do if you physically don't have the space? My DS2 is 7 weeks and he's pretty much reached the end of the Moses basket. A crib would be the only other thing I could fit in my room and that would only buy me an extra couple of weeks. There is no way could fit in a cot, not even a travel one, in our room. Leaving the only "solution" being co-sleeping which comes with its own risks ( as well as being something I really don't want to do).

[Baaartimaeus]

5 months, mainly because DH kept waking DS with all his tossing and turning and DS woke enough by himself as it was.

Then around 8/9 months we started co-sleeping (just me and DS, DH would sleep in lounge or DS's room depending on what time of night DS came into our bed!) as I was fed up of getting up in the night and sitting up with DS for ages until he deigned to go back to sleep...

Then at 11 months he went back into his cot in his own room.

DS is a very bad sleeper and we've done whatever was necessary at the time to try to get the most amount of sleep for everyone. This changed depending on the situation (teething, illness, my tiredness, full moon, whether the day had a "Y" in it...)

[Vondo]

DS1 was about 5 months, DS3 was about 8 weeks - DS3 was a light sleeper and started to sleep much better in his own room that and he grew out of his moses basket and there was no way we were fitting a cot into our shoebox of a room! Even now at 3½ DS3 still prefers sleeping in his own bed to coming into ours. DS1 would happily sleep in our bed still at 10 years old!

[ZuleikaD]

"Not sure how SIDS is prevented if they are in your room and you are asleep?"

Because one of the remaining causes of SIDS (after other risk factors like smoking and being put to sleep face down are removed) is that the baby simply forgets to breathe. Small babies rely on adults' regulatory systems to keep their own systems going (because human babies are born before they're ready, really) so keeping them with you when asleep means that they can hear you breathing. Your own body's systems continue to regulate theirs just as they did in the womb. If you haven't got space for a cot in your room then co-sleeping would be safer in terms of SIDS.

[Thelobsterswife]

Some babies are good sleepers. Some are not. Where they sleep has little bearing in my experience. My two slept 12 hours a night at about 12 weeks, both were in our room until 6 months +. Most of my friends moved their babies out by about 6 weeks. All but one of them was a terrible sleeper. I would also be cautious about making your child rely on a pitch black, completely silent room in order to sleep well. May backfire if they go to nursery and need to learn to nap in a bright and busy room. Also have friends who still have to cart around several blackout blinds wherever they go in order to get their 3 and 4 year olds to sleep. With regards to SIDS, I would do your research and then make up your own minds. As someone else has said, its got to be a decision that you make along with your partner, as you, and not some randoms on the internet, would have to live with that decision should the worst happen.

[oscarwilde]

2 months with DD. She was keeping us awake snuffling like a little pig in her sleep and vice versa. Plus she slept far better in a proper cot than in a moses basket. Having said that, the room was right beside ours and I very often shared a room with her/co-slept in the early days. It was probably 5 months before I started disciplining myself to do the night feed from a chair and put her back down rather than doing it half asleep and warm and cozy in the bed in her room. DH and I slept separately probably about 70% of the time for the first 6 months but it worked v well for us. Neither of us slept at all well for safety concerns if DD was ever in our bed.