BF & night feeds, where did your baby sleep and until when?i

[orchidee]

I am new to this and we're at the Moses-basket-in-bedroom stage but thinking ahead to bigger beds, where to put it and for how long. I have a few questions for those who've done it already. I'd like to ebf for at least 6 months and longer if possible. (currently have a Moses basket and crib, not sure how long they'll be suitable)

When did your baby stop using a Moses basket or crib, and was this because the bed was too small or your baby began to sit up or move around so it was no longer safe?

Did you then use a cot in your room, cosleep or sleep in separate rooms? How did this work & for how long?

Thanksi

My children went from bedside crib (best buy EVER) into a cot next to the bed when they were about 4 or 5 months. With dd, she moved into her own room at 6 months. DS1 was about 8 months. DS2 was about 14 months. DS2 also pretty much co-slept from the first night waking for a feed. Was way way easier than settling him back in a cot.

He moved into his own room at 14 months and dh took over the night wakings. By then he was only feeding maybe once a night, and if DH went to him if he woke, he would settle without expecting a feed. In fact DH took over all nights for the babies once they stopped night feeds - which was the same age they went into their own rooms.

I used a moses basket for a couple of months till it started to look a bit cramped! I would keep it next to a double bed with me in (dh in another room. I would rather no know him when he's not had enough sleep).

After that i got an ikea cot and made it up on the highest level, with one side off. They have different thicknesses of mattresses so chose one to make the height match the bed. Put it next to the bed.

Feeds to sleep downstairs. Has always done this though lately drops off not on the breast so he's maybe out growing it. Then he kips in the corner of the sofa with us watching over, till i go to bed.

Then he goes in to the cot. If he stirs i just pull him in to bed with me and throw a boob at him while i go back to sleep. Though at 15m he now sleeps through. But we still cosleep. I'll let him decide when he wants to move into his own bed/room.

I had a normal sized cot next to the bed with the rail lowered and fed baby on our bed to sleep before transferring to her own cot (though she would feed/sleep on my lap in the evenings until she was 7m or so). When DD3 stopped falling asleep during feeding at about 8/9m I used to feed her in our bed then put her down.

When she was about 13/14m we swapped rooms with DD1 &2 and there wasn't any room for the cot next to our bed so it went against a wall at the foot of the bed then by about 16m we moved her cot into her own room where she is now at 19m. If she wakes in the night for a feed I stagger walk down the hall to her room and sit in a chair to feed her. She mostly sleeps from 6.30pm-5/6am but does have the odd bad night so she's not in with her sisters yet.

We have an enormous basket, so DS only went into his room about 6 weeks ago (he?s now 9m). Now, night feeds are down to 1 per night, and only last about 10 min so I have a chair next to his cot. He has another feed somewhere between 5.30 and 7, depending on when he wakes up and he comes in to our bed for that one.

I was really worried about moving him to his own room as prior to that he was feeding 3ish times in the night, but we decided to try to re-settle in other ways when he went to his own room for most of the wakings and he fairly quickly started only waking for that one feed. Occassionally he still wakes at other times, but DH settles him for those.

We went for the 'family bed' option - a double mattress and single mattress next to each other on the floor. I do realise this wouldn't work for everyone (!) but it has been fantastic for us. Night feeds were wonderfully easy - I just rolled over, 'plugged in' a breast and went back to sleep. DS stopped feeding at night in his own time and is now very excited about having a bed in his own room.

We used moses basket by the bed for about 2 months until DS outgrew it and then put his cotbed next to the bed with the side off so we were sort of cosleeping, it was great and worked for us until about 5 months when DS got a bit too 'rolly' so we put the side back on and moved him into his own room.

DD was in her carrycot (she hated her basket so we just used the pram carrycot) in our room till she started to outgrow it, when we moved her into her cot in the nursery as we couldn't really fit the cot in our room. That was at about 3-4 months I think...can't remember well though!

She usually sleeps through so it's not much of a bother. Plus, as I had a C-section, even when she was tiny I had to get out of bed to get her out of her carrycot, so I never had the ability to feed without getting out bed unless we were co-sleeping. We've co-slept some of the time from early on (and got a bed guard for it), but usually just in the morning when she wakes up early and then we go back to bed together. As I don't sleep all that well with her in bed with me, I never wanted to co-sleep all the time. Even now, when she's going through the 6 month growth spurt and is up alot at night, her being in the next room (with the super comfy chair!) isn't an issue for me.

FWIW she's 6 months and we're still bfing. EBF from about 1-5.5 months (had early issues after a SCBU stay) and are doing BLW now.

wish I'd had one of those co-sleeper cribs at the start tbh.

To begin with she slept in her crib but by the end of the first week I realized that didn't work so she slept in her carrycot in the living room with me on the sofa for a week or so. After that she slept in bed with me at night time for the night time feeds and in her carrycot during the day - This worked best for us up till about 8 weeks old when she grew out of her carrycot and slept for 6 hours at a time at night. From 8 weeks she has been in her cotbed every night but during the day she is clingy and sleeps on me or in the pram/carseat when we go out. she is only 11 weeks now so my experience stops there...