Moving baby into own room at 4 and a half months

[velveteenwabbit]

We are considering moving DD into her own room to sleep as she is a very noisy sleeper. DH wants to move her, I wanted to keep her with us until 6 months but we already do let her nap in a separate room to us with a video monitor on.

Has anyone else done this? I'm not sure about it as I know it's recommended they're in a room with an adult until 6 months.

Couldn’t wait to get rid of mine! They were both in their own rooms at 4 months. Everyone slept better and you get a bit of “normality” back into your life when your room becomes a childfree zone again.

Ours was 4 months. As she got more alert, the poor girl was waking up with our snoring and screaming at us in frustration.

DS is 18mths old on Friday and still in with me. He’s my baby and personally the risk was too high for me.
Having a monitor has zero effect on reducing the risk of cot death.

I moved DD1 at 20 ish weeks, after her last set of jabs. Also started a little bit of a bedtime routine and she responded really well. She has been a brilliant sleeper since then.

Left DD2 until about 6 months, she was outgrowing the moses basket and starting to wiggle. I was a bit sad to do it as she'll be my last baby but I was keen to start a routine and she also responded well, she too is a great sleeper. I just have a decent baby monitor and her bedroom is right next door to ours.

2 weeks for mine. Ok it's 40 years ago, no guidelines then but I think even today I'd be looking at 3 months max.

I just couldn't sleep with them snuffling next to me.

I suppose white noise would get me through it now, wasn't really a thing back then

I suspect a noisy sleeper is one who is keeping the parent awake or disturbing the with their baby snuffles etc

We kept ours in our room until approximately 8 months. Risk too great for us even though I breast fed, didn't drink and don't smoke.

We moved DS at 3 months. We were disturbing each other and I wanted my bedroom back! He was absolutely fine and, if anything, moving him earlier was a lot easier as he wasn’t aware he was in our room before that, whereas now, he would be IYSWIM .

I would have a good look at the lullaby trust website and make as informed choice as you can.

The 'my child was in their own room at a couple of weeks and were fine' advice is unhelpful. Some babies were not. I used to sit in the boot of the car if we had more than 3 children in the back and I was fine. Doesn't mean I'll do it with my children.

Prior to the SIDS guidelines coming out approx 3000 children a year died from SIDS in the UK and now it's less than 300. The so called experts must be doing something right.

People on MN are hysterical about this. If you read the statistics the number of SIDS cases is very small and we still don't know what causes it. There is a correlation between room sharing and lower incidence, there are theories about why that may be bu there is no conclusive answer yet.

Breastfeeding lowers incidence of SIDS but I have never seen anyone on MN say "don't formula feed because your baby will die of cot death." Yet moving baby out of your room at 4 months brings out the hysteria brigade.

OP do your research and if you are willing to accept the risks then do what works for your family.

Prior to the SIDS guidelines coming out approx 3000 children a year died from SIDS in the UK and now it's less than 300. The so called experts must be doing something right.

This is mainly due to putting babies on their back to sleep, that has been the biggest change in practice contributing to reduced SIDS rates.

Edge the OP asked for opinions. People stating why they chose to keep their baby in their room is not hysteria.

I lost a family member to SIDS as a child so followed the guidelines rigidly as I know I would blame myself if I didn't follow them and my baby died (apart from dummy as neither baby would keep them in). That included breastfeeding but the OP didn't ask about that.

No. If she died would you forgive yourself? Sorry to be harsh.

@NerrSnerr I'd call this comment hysterical, what about you?

Very sorry for your loss but you or your loved ones should not blame yourselves, SIDS is tragic and sad but it can happen even with all rules and guildelines followed.

Babies are at greater risk riding in cars than sleeping in their own rooms. I encourage parents to get a better sense of how statistics work and make decisions based on proper information.

Our DD moved to her own room when she was 3, our DS is 2 and still in his cot in our room, some of my friends moved their children to their own rom when they were very young.

The thing here is that you need to be very sure that you are making the right decision or you will likely worry yourself silly and not sleep properly anyway. They do get quieter IMO as they get a bit older and you also learn to sleep through non essential noises much better.

I moved DS at 3 months. Best nights sleep ever. Had to be at work full time by then so needed my sleep. Had monitor on

My second, third and fourth children had their own rooms from birth.
My first child would have had their own room too if I wasn't living in a one bedroomed house at the time!
I didn't have monitors but I did leave the doors open.
Never had a problem

The SIDS guidelines is about Back to Sleep not shared rooms until 6 months old. The shared room thing is fairly new. When dd (now 12) was born it wasn't mentioned.

We weren't encouraged to use dummies either.

Interesting, shared room was defo advice when DS1 was born in 2008. And in 2007 when I was doing health advice posters using FSID (previous name of lullaby trust) info.

Dummies was very brief and quickly rescinded when they realised it only reduced the risk for babies who already had them because if they are used to having a dummy and one night don't, it slightly increases. So overall having had a dummy slightly increases risk. It's all in how it's worded.

I encourage parents to get a better sense of how statistics work and make decisions based on proper information.

I agree with the above @edgeofheaven. I admit I was anxious about SIDSs. Maybe that's hysterical but when you've visited a dead baby at the funeral directors who has died of SIDS I don't think it's possible to be anything else.

I had already told the OP to look at the lullaby trust website to make her own decision, my other comments were aimed at PPs who talk about 'so called professionals' and 'my child was fine so it must be ok' which doesn't help anyone.

We moved our first child at that age, and it worked so well for him that we moved our second child at 9 weeks, which was also great. We had a breathing monitor for peace of mind.

What is a noisy sleeper btw? I hear it mentioned all the time, but can’t figure out what it means. Breathing? Or moving? Or making noises?

I didn't but honestly only because it was easier to just grab her from a moses basket next to me than go to another room. If the worst happened and she did stop breathing I would not have woken up anyway.

My babies were noisy sleepers too. And by that I mean they would grunt and groan in their sleep. My firstborn sounded just like a creaky door. I couldn't sleep at all with them in my room. My firstborn went into his own room at seven days when the total sleep deprivation was murdering me, my second baby went into her own room as soon as we came home from the hospital at three days.

I used sound monitor only, no video. It worked out okay for us! I find my kids are both great sleepers and very secure in their rooms.

MustardScreams in my DDs case it was nasal issues, always grunting and snorting.

If your husband wants to move her and you don’t feel comfortable, can you compromise by keeping her where she is and him wearing earplugs for a while? My DH did that during the newborn grunty stage, and it meant he’d wake for cries but not be constantly woken by all the sleeping noises.

Monitors are helpful but FWIW don’t actually cancel out the SIDS risk - it’s specifically room-sharing. But the increased risk is still an overall tiny risk, so it’s really up to your comfort levels.

I have to admit I’m puzzled/jealous of all the people who got more sleep with the baby in another room! When we tried that it just meant even less sleep, because settling the baby meant getting out of bed and leaving the room, so I was awake for even longer and ended up even more shattered.