Going in to own room

[sparklekitty]

My DD is now 6 mo so has hit the age were she can/should go into her own room. However, we currently co sleep and she wakes every 2ish hours to feed. She had cracked waking only 3 times a night for a few weeks but then got a cold and were back to every 2 hours.

The question is do I put her in her own room now and man it out getting up every 2 hours in the hope that it will cut the comfort feeding down or do I wait till she wakes less frequently which could be forever at this rate.

Any advice on how to get her in her own room? She naps in her own cot during the day and lasts about half an hour.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Is she breast fed or formula fed?

I only ask because as a ff parent I know that by 6 months, it's possible to encourage them to wake less at night.

I suspect...but of course couldn't say for sure...that a breastfed baby might be different.

And I suspect that she's breastfed given that she's waking every 2 hours. Does she have a dummy?

[sparklekitty]

Oh sorry, that info might help! She's bf and we're doing blw so not a huge amount of solids going in yet.

She is a total dummy refuser unfortunately.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Gosh then...you'll need someone who knows about bf! I know that it's hard either way but bf babies have more of a tendency to comfort feed...because it IS the very essence of comfort isn't it.

Good luck...someone who knows about all that will be along soon I'm sure.

[paperclips]

I'm in a similar position to you, OP.

DS slept well until 4months, then it went pear-shaped and the last 2 have been awful. He was waking every 45 minutes at one point about a month ago. It improved a little but when we started solids, but probably coincidence. Last week it was 1.5 hours. It improved a bit this week again, so tonight we thought we'd go for it. I was keen to get him settled before he starts teething.

Only the first night, but amazing success! He slept from 8.30pm till 4.30am, woke, fed, nappy change and he's been fast asleep on me while I write this. I'm about to put him back down now. Fingers crossed.


You say your DS used to sleep better, so you know she's capable of going longer.
So I say go for it, if it doesn't work bring her back in with you.

I was very sad to move him out, thinking of those first nights with a newborn when i'd just stare at him. Feels like such a big step, but I was desperate for sleep.

I think DH's snoring was waking him up!

[sparklekitty]

We had a decent night last night, back to the 3wakes - 1am, 4am, 7am up at 8am. She woke at 9.30 (half an hour after a long feed to sleep) so i cuddled, shushed and stoked her hair instead. She cried for a few mins (felt like the worst mum ever) but then dropped off till 1am.

Think if she does this for another couple of nights I might make the break!

Good to know it worked for you paper, were you cosleeping? I think that might be he hardest bit for her, although I do think we wake up a bit now.

[SwivelHips]

congratulations sparkle. I have 10month old ds who cosleeps and uses me as a dummy all night. we moved his cot into his own room last night, but alas it was empty and he was in with us again...

[paperclips]

Sparklekitty we weren't co-sleeping, our bed's not big enough to co-sleep properly, so a bit less of a jump, but he would often sleep on me for part of the night, when he wouldn't go in his cot and just wanted to feed/snuggle. I would be partly sat up and wake with a cricked neck.

Last night he actually slept in the travel cot in his own room, because we weren't confident enough to move the proper cot.

Hoping the success isn't just a one off.

Good luck to you!

[FredKiller]

I wouldn't have had the energy at 6 months to keep getting up in the night (especially not this in this bloody weather, brrrr!) We co-slept til about 10 months, then moved DS on to a double mattress on the floor of his room. Then I could make a decision depending on how knackered I was whether to curl up next to him or return to my own bed after he had resettled. Was especially useful when he was ill/teething and just wanted me close all night.

We did this mainly because he was a massive cot-refuser from birth. But now he is nearly 2, I find I'm not having to deal with the endless getting out of bed/rapid return that a lot of my friends are, because their babies have just discovered the novelty of getting out of bed and finding mummy. So that's one bonus.

[sparklekitty]

We are going to invest in a roll away mattress so I can stay in her room once we've made the move.

6 months does seem early, I guess I'm starting to feel pressure as all my friends babies are in their own rooms already and I'm getting those 'oh she's still in with you' and 'you'll have to get her out soon' comments from my mum etc.

[FredKiller]

Oh just lie to your mum, it's easier. My mother thinks DS has been sleeping through in his own room since he was 6mo. That's so not the case!

You need to do what feels right to you. We only moved DS because he gradually started sleeping better in the evenings and, as I got my evenings back, I felt worried about him rolling/crawling off an adult bed. It had nothing to do with wanting him in his own room.

I felt the pressure to stop co-sleeping too. In the end, my need for sleep won out and he just wouldn't settle without me, so we kept on bed sharing. Now we're gradually weaning him (and me!) into sleeping alone and it feels right for us.

[blushingmare]

Firstly, just to say if cosleeping's still working for you then stick with it if it's what you want. Don't bow to peer pressure. I moved DD into her own room (we weren't cosleeping at that stage) at just after 6 months and I was the last of my peer group to do it, but it felt totally right to have waited - I felt ready for it and so did she.

I was dreading moving dd as like your's she was also waking every 2 hours at that stage, having been doing 3 hourly wakings. The move didn't change things immediately, but after a week or so she then did a couple of 3 hour stretches again. Once she'd done that I then thought seeing as she'd done 3 hours before, she could do it again so if she woke before 3 hours I stroked and patted her back to sleep instead of feeding. It only took a couple of nights of that til she was doing 4 hours, so then I didn't feed her before 4 hours etc. By 8 months I'd got it down to just 1 feed between 7&7 and she's slept through once but now it's all gone tits up with colds and teething again

I'm not sure her own room made her sleep longer, but I think the fact I have to make a special effort to get up and go and feed her in another room instead of feeding her whilst half asleep in bed gave me more motivation to make the effort to start stretching out the feeds. It happened much more quickly than I'd imagined, but I did have to consciously do something to make it happen, rather than just the being in her own room making it happen iyswim.