How to put a co-sleeping baby to bed?

[hmfair54]

4 month old ds has co-slept virtually since the get go and on the whole it has worked amazingly for us. I'm not really in any rush to stop it as we all get a decent amount of sleep each night but it would be lovely to have a couple hours in the evening baby free.

So my question is, how do I go about putting a co-sleeping baby "to bed" or are they two things that just don't go hand in hand? Will we have to stop co-sleeping in order to do this?

[hmfair54]

Anyone?

[Meredithgrey1]

I always had to go to bed with DD when we co slept. It was a big factor in us stopping. She would not sleep unless latched on to me, I couldn’t even roll onto my back without her waking up.

I did know someone who had a video baby monitor, and cushions on the floor all round the bed (just in case), and she would feed the baby to sleep then leave them asleep in the centre of a totally empty bed, and just keep a close eye on the video monitor.
I don’t know how advised that is though, although I don’t see how her baby could have come to any harm.

[pinguwings]

Time.

My co- sleeping baby probably started showing signs of being ready for an earlier bed from about 5 months. We got in to a gentle routine which fitted in with the toddler and she would happily go down in the side car cot at about 7ish.
I would breastfeed her in to a deep sleep and transfer.
As soon as I would get in bed she would pop her head up and join me.

[FTEngineerM]

I co sleep, dc is 7m.

I ‘put him to bed’ (feed him to sleep lying down until he drops off) then replace my nip with a dummy and slink off downstairs with the monitor. Usually works fine.

[FTEngineerM]

I should add, he can’t roll off there’s various things in the way. Unless he suddenly learns to roll feet first. Which seems unlikely.

[purplejungle]

We have a video monitor and baby's cot is side-carred to the bed so he can't fall out one side, and we would have time to get to him before he could crawl off the other side.

[ThatDreamSheep]

There's a few co-sleeping FB groups which might have more people to offer you help. I tend to just get her to sleep on me, put her in the cot with the monitor then she will stay there for maybe 2 hours before I need to go up to her and she usually ends up in my bed then. I'm looking into next options now for a floor bed etc.

[LividLoving]

Following because I’ve been in bed at 7.30 the last nine months...

[Grits]

I feed DS to sleep and then creep out and watch him on the video monitor. Our bed is up against the wall on one side and then has a cotbed on the other side (was put there in the hope DS would sleep in it..ha!). I did this with other DC as well. The first couple of times you leave them always feels a bit weird but you soon get used to it!

[meringue33]

We had bed guards so baby couldn’t roll off. Breastfed her to sleep on my side then snuck downstairs after she’d unlatched and dozed off.

[WildGeece]

Up to about 6 months, my wee one was with us downstairs til we went to bed, either in a moses basket or on lap. He didn't get into a routine of clearly needing to go down for the night earlier until then. We had a side car crib, fed to sleep and placed him in it (ninja roll or slowly eased him down). He would half sleep with us and half in it. When he got too big for the crib, I got a mattress for the floor of his room, feed to sleep, ninja roll away, then he comes to bed with us when he wakes later on.

[meringue33]

She was in a sleeping bag and I took the duvet off the bed.

[QforCucumber]

Ds2 Is 7 months, I now feed him to sleep In a rocking chair In his room at 7ish. Once he's properly asleep put him in the cot. He usually wakes around 10 and I take that as my cue to go to bed. Co sleep the rest of the night.

[PerpetualStudent]

I used to feed to sleep and use bed guards (you can get ones which fold up/down so they aren’t in the way all the time)

[WildGeece]

Also SIDs guidance is that baby should sleep in same room til 6 months. 2 months will fly by, although it can seem like an age with a wee one.