Is it time to move DD (13 months) into her own room?

[user11290]

Hi,

I've had a few nights of awful sleep. Some of it was initially down to her teething but the last few nights she just seems to be waking up and pooing me through the cot and making noises to get my attention.

I offer milk but she only drinks around 2oz which shows she wasn't all that hungry. The heating is on so she can't be too cold either.

We just keep disturbing each other. When I come upstairs for bed (she's already asleep) and the slightest noise I make wakes her up. Vice versa, any noise she makes wakes me up.

Is it time to change her into her own room or will that make no difference?

Thanks.

Those all sound like very good reasons to move her to her own room, so much so that I'm wondering why you're posting. Is there a reason you don't want her to go into her own room? My 2.5yr old is still in my room but that's because it suits us, if I was in your situation he'd be evicted in a heartbeat

You could always move her out as a trial?

@naemates haha 😂. The reason I'm a bit apprehensive is because there's a small part of my brain that feels mean/selfish for moving her into her own room at 13 months (I know people do this sooner) but I just worry she'll feel abandoned :/.

But at the same time the lack of sleep is catching up and I'm back at work so I need to be somewhat rested to do my job properly.

The right time to move her into her own room was about 7 months ago IMO.

I found moving them into their own room dramatically improved everyone’s sleep. Is she napping in her room? That’s a good way to get her used to the room.

I’m not sure I understand the issue. You’re disturbing each other, she’s well well past the age it’s recommended to room share for… so I would move her without hesitation. I don’t follow why you think she’d feel abandoned- she does a chunk of the night on her own anyway by the sounds of it (if you disturb her when you come up to bed, it sounds like you’re not going to bed with her) and her being in her own room doesn’t mean you have to do cry it out sleep training or anything, you can still respond in the same way to wakes, it just adds a 10 second shuffle down the corridor which is so insignificant! And worse case scenario, if sleep gets worse as a result (I highly doubt it but you never know) then you can just move the cot back. Stop overthinking it and move her!

Children are different. DS was very upset when we attempted to move him at 7 months. We ended up trying again at 13 months and it went very smoothly.

Moved out 10 month DD into her own room at 6 months and it's improved hers (and our) sleep dramatically! You can still be responsive to her when she cries.

We moved my DS to his room after his first birthday for similar reasons, plus I was going back to work when he was 13 months.

There was a period of adjustment I'm not going to lie. I put a rocking chair in there and we fed it cuddled him to sleep or a sleepy state then put him in the cot.

He sleeps pretty well these days at 20 months.

@PickledElectricity thank you. I'll be transitioning her into her own room at the end of the coming week hopefully. Her dad's going to paint her room tomorrow and I'm going to air it out for a few days before I put her in her own room.

Did you start off with day time naps in their own room?

@SI85 thank you. This is reassuring. I've got a baby monitor already so I suppose that'll alert me if she does need me

Yes we just went in with naps and then bed in the same day.

Good luck!!

Ds didn't move into his own room until he was 20 months, because we didn't have a room for him until we moved house.

I'll call it semi-successful. I didn't wake up with him poking me, but he did still wake and called for me.
Eventually we put the stairgate down the hall so he could get out of bed and come into us. This was much better for my sleep, because he'd crawl up the bed and cuddle me rather than me going through to his room.

He did tell me he would be doing this until he was 28yo, but I can assure you it was unusual after about 7yo, and I don't think he's done except for one night when he was ill, since 10yo.