To ask for advice on transition from cosleeping to cot?

[currentcosleeper]

DS is 17mo and a pretty good sleeper. Once he's down for the night tends to sleep for 10-12 hours only waking occasionally to look for his pacifier. Our bed time routine consists of bath, bottle, story then bed but often takes 1-1.5 hour for him to fall asleep- he just spends time chatting away, laughing, climbing around the bed. I feel it's time he got in to his cot so he can be put down around 7/7:30 and get himself off to sleep.

AIBU to ask for advice & success stories please?

I’m in the same situation although LO is only a year old, she currently sleeps in a sidecar cot but would like to start moving her away from us in the next couple of months. We tried her in the cot at about 10 months but she just never settled.

I did controlled crying with a 14 month old.

Cried for two hours on night one, night two snuffled about for 20 mins, from third night on fell asleep after less than five minutes and slept through.

I sat outside the door and went back in at 2 mins, 4, 8, 16 etc. I took a week off work to crack it as it was killing me being awake all night and then working full time.

HOWEVER at that age I wasn’t too bothered about actual bed ‘time’ - he went to bed around 9 because then he would fall asleep almost immediately, whereas if we tried 7 he’d be playing like you mention. He didn’t go to nursery though so no need to be up especially early.

My DS attends nursery so needs to be up early hence wanting a reasonable bed time.

I've read some stuff about CC and CIO but not sure I'm emotionally ready for it. 2 hours crying sounds intense

Well, it wasn’t the nicest thing in the world but two hours crying against being kicked and woken every single night it was a no brainer. And it wasn’t terrible - you’re sitting outside the door, they know you’re there, they’re not in pain, they just want you! Letting them cry isn’t the same as making them cry (and CIO isn’t something I wanted either, basically letting them feel alone isn’t for me either).

Bath story bed cuddle, into the cot, lullaby and stroke head. Leave. Give it ten minutes and be calmly reassuring but don't let him out of the cot. Ok, It'll be tough for a week or two, but if you wait until he's tired to put him in the cot he'll be fine. lavender oil works on some kids.
My old HV advice to give the baby a dose of calpol every night for a week to make them drowsy until they get the hang of going to sleep independently is apparently now frowned on.
So do you currently go to bed when he does?

Yes I come and lay in bed with him and he will lay down but then also crawl around the bed and on me, laugh, talk, generally play around and this can be for anything up to an hour and a half.

I've tried putting him in his cot once or twice and he won't lay down at all and isn't calm just stands up holding the bars and screaming and crying tears as opposed to just whining.