Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

How long do you think your baby should sleep in your room for?

108 replies

josben · 06/10/2006 15:38

DD is 10 weeks and we are thinking about moving her into her own room this weekend as she is a very light sleeper and so we think she'll sleep better (and hopefully so will we!)
But I know that the recommendation is that babies should sleep in parents room for first 6 months (as we did with DS1 & DS2) but I was just wondering if everyone follows this advice?

OP posts:
katiebirdie · 07/10/2006 22:02

my ds (9wks) is still in a moses basket in our room and as soon as he grows out of it he will move into a cot in our room. we only have a 1bed flat at moment so when time is right we will ALL move bedrooms into our new pad! think its a very personal choice but not sure I would like him to be in a room of his own as young as some babies on here.

staceym11 · 07/10/2006 22:59

dd was 8 days old, neither of us got on very well with her in the room (she didnt sleep and neither did i) her bedroom was downstairs as well and ours was unpstairs, but she was right underneath us and we had the baby monitors.

it just depends on the mother and child i suppose.

Ouisie · 08/10/2006 09:46

I live in Australia and I've never heard of the recommendation for kids to sleep with their parents for 6 months. My dd lasted 2 hours before my husband went crazy with the grunting and my ds lasted about 2 weeks (only because we had horrible downstairs neighbours who complained constantly about noise). To be honest I just can't sleep with the bub in the room and certainly not in the bed - we have produced 2 very squirmy individuals.

DetentionGrrrl · 08/10/2006 09:47

My son was 2 weeks when we put him in his own room- we all slept better, and we wanted to start a good habit of him having his own space etc.

Pollybloodyanna · 08/10/2006 09:53

I did at least 6 months with all of mine because of the cot death recommendations. dd2 and dd3 ended up staying in much longer because of lack of space. (dd3 only just got her own room at about 20 months - we all sleep so much better as a result).

Flamebat · 08/10/2006 09:55

Depends on the baby!!

DD - 6 weeks - she was sooo noisy, it was right for us.

DS - 7 1/2 months and no plans to move him for a while... trying to give him as much time away from DD's foghorn voice in the mornings as possible.

BexieID · 08/10/2006 10:35

While I was living at my parents, Thomas was in a moses basket in my room. We moved when he was 3 months old and he went into a cotbed in our room. At almost 6 months, he is still there as there are 10 boxes to sort out from the move (and nowhere to put it all!) .

sharmaniser · 08/10/2006 11:00

We kept him in our room only until he was 2 weeks, i hadn't planned on moving him into his own room so quickly but once he had been born i felt happier with moving him sooner.

Straight away from going into his own room he was sleeping through the night. Whilst he had been our room he was such a wriggler.

From 4 weeks old he was sleeping 7.30pm till 5 or 6 in the morning. We feel we have been very lucky. He is now 15 weeks old but i still have the monitor right by me just for reassurance!

rookiemum2 · 08/10/2006 11:18

I went to spare room when DS was 7 months and DH stayed with him! DH was less disturbed by every move DS made. We moved DS into crib at approx 3 months (pricey I know) but easier space wise to have in our bedroom. At about 8 months DS moved into his own room and slept through the night for the first time.

One other cot death theory is that they can hear their mother's heart beating if they are lying close enough.

I really feel for anyone going through all that worry of first six months whether to co-sleep or not. In the end DS did co-sleep quite a bit but I was pretty nervous throughout given the conflicting advice.

Roskva · 08/10/2006 15:12

dd went into her cot in her own room at 5 weeks and started sleeping through the night straight away - I think she tended to wake herself up in her moses basket because she kept hitting the sides with her hands and feet (she could unswaddle herself by wriggling energetically by three weeks, or maybe my swaddling technique was lousy!).

juuule · 08/10/2006 15:15

For as long as the people involved are happy with.

littlepiggieneedssomesleep · 08/10/2006 21:10

Was going to ask the same thing.
Ds is coming up to 6 months and still in our room, i am not ready for him to go into his own bed yet, but we are going to move his cot away from our bed soon, maybe doing it in two stages will make it easier, he is still up anything up to 5 times a night so hope this will improve.

MissGolightly · 08/10/2006 22:18

DS is 5.5 months and still with us - like many on here I had been told the cot death recommendations and would not have felt comfortable ignoring the HV's advice - not that I am criticising anyone who makes their own choice, it's v personal.

I will move him some time but not sure when, I'd like to do it before he gets too "aware" of the change, but like Little Piggie, he's still breast-fed and up a few times at night, to be honest it's just easier having him in the same room!

Regarding all the people who moved their babies out early because of the noise, DS was a VERY noisy sleeper in the early days, almost unbearable at times, but quietened down very much at about the 6 week mark and now sleeps completely silently. Has anyone else found this?

MissGolightly · 08/10/2006 22:25

Oh, and to add to the "why it makes a difference" debate, I was told by someone that there's a theory to do with exhaled carbon dioxide. My science isn't up to much so I may not have remembered this right but I think it was to do with the fact that it isn't low oxygen in your blood that makes you feel the urge to breath, it is raised CO2. If the parents are breathing in the same room then the CO2 levels are higher and the baby is prompted to breath more often. But that could be complete bollocks, and I may have totally misremembered.

Really I am with Bottomburp, in that I don't think it matters whether the theories are right or wrong, the stats seem pretty persuasive.

Adorabelle · 08/10/2006 23:05

Kept dd in our room till she was 14 months

Didn't feel happy moving her into her own room till then, but friends have had their babies in their own rooms from birth......

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

abelle · 09/10/2006 08:18

mine was in his own room from 4 weeks - for me, it was a case of now or never as i think the longer they are with you at night, the harder it is to separate them from you.........

riab · 09/10/2006 10:40

DS was 3 weeks old. If you and baby and DH/partner are all getting a reasonable amount fo sleep with baby in your room then fine, but we weren't. I do think the SIDS thing is a bit wonky - none of the explanantions of why baby is safer in his cot in my room as opposed to in his room made any sense to me.

I checked out all the stats and found that once you rule out smoking and suffocation through blankets/pillows the risk of SIDS is actually very very low. And honestly despite theories i couldn't see any links in the where your baby sleeps - possible correlation but not causation.

If anyone has a real scientifically backed up explanation of why baby in a room with an adult is better than baby in nursrey then please share!

I found that the earlier the easier - no drastic change over for him as his only real memories are of his cot and his own room.

alex8 · 09/10/2006 10:47

I did it for 6 months, I didn't want to take any chances. Also it made no difference to us really.

alex8 · 09/10/2006 10:49

Also there was no problem when he went in his own room. He didn't even notice. So I think the longer you leave it argument is nonsense. Childrne do not have memories from 5 months old.

Coriander73 · 09/10/2006 13:24

Both DD (now 2) & DS (just 3 weeks!) slept in their own room from day one... Never looked back...

ZacharyZoo · 09/10/2006 13:31

Oh dear, i think i am the world's worst mother, both DDs and DS were in their own room from the day they came home from hospital. DDs are now 12 and 9, they don't seem to have been affected by it, very loving affectionate children. My DS is the most cuddly, lovely baby, but i just can't sleep with a baby in our room, and feel that i am much better for the kids after a full nights sleep. Err... i also turn the monitor off as well when we go to bed, otherwise you get every little noise in stereo. I sort of think that if he really needs me i will hear the cries, if he is just grunting, and talking in his sleep i don't need to share it with him. However after reading this thread i feel like i will be due a visit from the NSPCC.

clairemow · 09/10/2006 13:42

No Zacharyzoo - we turn the monitor off too. In fact, we are even worse parents - we haven't used the monitor with DS2 (5 weeks) at all. We hear if he has a problem and respond.

3andnomore · 09/10/2006 13:42

Well, all mine were for longer then 6 month in my room....es actually co-slept for 3 years, lol, ms moved into his own room at 8 month and ys at 12month....partly the time they moved was circumstancial, and partly it was down to me being paranoid about cotdeath and I certainly would have never considered moving them before 6 month, and I still use the Babymonitor for ys, now, and he is 2!
I read all the different research to this and why this advice is given, so, felt that I much ratehr prefer to follow it, as it made sense to me and I perosnally would have felt I put my childrens life in danger...but that is just my personal view!
Must say though, a friend of mine put her dd into her own room straightaway, and I really could not understand that at all, maybe I am just a very needy mummy, lol! But well, I felt that our Baby's have been so near to us for all those month and felt I still eeded them as close as possible after they were born.

tortoiseshell · 09/10/2006 13:43

For me it was 6 months with each of them. Now ds2 is reaching this age, I'm loathe to move him!

3andnomore · 09/10/2006 13:44

Clairemow, how would you be able to hear if your lil one has a problem? Just wondering....I mean, if they start to breath funny, flatter, then wouldn't you muhc more likely to pick that up on a monitir then without? Must say though, my hearing is not the best, lol....so, without a monitor I would have been lost...