To think I have made a rod for my own back?

[Auntiedotty]

Ds 8m has been breastfed and coslept since birth. At first this was a survival tactic as he wanted to feed all night and was the only way I could get some sleep too. I am beyond ready to stop and transition him into his own room but I have no idea where to start and don't want to leave him to cry himself to sleep. He wakes hourly at least through the night and I do most nights alone as dh works night shifts so I am then alone with ds through the day too so I need some sleep! I used to laugh at the making a rod for my back comments but not so much anymore😭

So what I did when I was in this exact position was-
Started getting baby other sleep associations. Put him in a baby grow bag and we slept with no duvet so he knew his bag meant night time sleep. I got a white noise machine and had that on 7pm-7am. Started doing a bottle of breast milk as the ‘bedtime’ feed.
After a week of this I started doing bedtime milk, sleep bag, white noise and putting him in his own cot. This did not go well and he pretty much started to cry after 5mins. I went in and picked him up as soon as he cried- settled him and put him back down. After 1 hour of this just packed up and went into our bed again.
Next night tried again- same for a few days but he did start to get used to his cot and lasted a bit longer each time before getting upset.
4 weeks (maybe) later he was going down in his cot but came into our bed at 2am ish.
Kept going with trying to resettle and all the sleep association’s. After another month or so he was sleeping in his cot all night.
Not saying it will work for your baby but it worked for us!

There is a small chance you'll just get lucky. We didn't bed share, but DD was in a co sleeper crib right beside me for the first 7 months. We moved her on a Friday night. On the Thursday night she fed every two hours. On the Friday in her own cot she slept 11 hours straight. I never would have expected that to happen. I guess we were waking each other.

If you don't get that lucky, I'd try reconcile yourself to a few tough nights walking back and forth (easier said than done when it's 4am and you're exhausted I know). Persevere with getting him into the cot, even if he's up to feed a lot.

Agree with making some sleep associations in your room (white noise, a teddy etc) and moving them across. Also, let him play in the cot during the day so it's not an unfamiliar place.

The only thing that worked for me was cry it out. The longest he cried was 18 minutes. This was when he was 8 months old. After 3 days he was sleeping 7pm-7am.
No regrets!

I've had three children and for each one used a book called The Baby Whisperer (Tracey Hogg) - it deals with tackling sleep issues at all ages and is magic!

There's no leaving them to cry and it works really quickly. One of the key things I found is to not let them get over tired before putting them down as they struggle to settle.

Good luck x

If you want a positive story, I coslept and breastfed from day 1. At 7 months DH convinced me to put DD into a cot in her own room. She went from waking once or twice a night for a feed to sleeping through - instantly.

In case anyone now hates me that was DD2. Dd1 was a total nightmare. I didn't really cosleep (probably should have!) and she was one of those babies (then toddlers, then children, now tweens) who barely slept at all, day or night.

Thanks all some great ideas...going to put them into action. Will update the thread will any improvement🤞