Is the day here where she moves to her own room?

[babylann]

Hi everyone.

My DD is 18 weeks old, so approximately 4.5 months. We're aware that babies are recommended to sleep in the same room as us until 6 months, but we aren't entirely sure why.

She's a big girl. She was born at a healthy 9lbs3oz, and she's gained weight at a healthy rate so she's becoming a bit too big for her moses' basket. We knew it was time to upgrade to a cot, but upon fixing it up, we realised it won't fit in our bedroom, at least not without making it impossible to move around in there. We already had to take out our wardrobe to fit the moses basket in.

So we decided to get a travel cot, as we've heard they're slightly smaller, just to make do until she's 6 months and ready to move into her own room, but lately we've been presented with a new problem. Since about 2.5 months, she's been sleeping through the night very happily from 9-6 with only one or two occasions where she wakes up in the middle of the night. But over the last week, it seems she is sleeping much more lightly, and whenever we go up to bed at about midnight, she begins stirring and eventually after about 15 minutes wakes up screaming. At first we wondered if it was just a coincidence because we have heard babies who previously slept through can start waking up mid-night at around 4 months, but it's becoming very obvious that we disturb her when we go to bed. It's now at a point where if I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, this wakes her too, so I figured it's not just coincidence that she's started waking up at the same time as our bedtime.

DD always sleeps in my bedroom on her own when she naps during the day, so I know she's happy to sleep on her own. Personally, I'm not too keen to have her away from me emotionally, but I hate disturbing her at night and I obviously hate night feeds and am glad they were put to rest a while ago. I also know I may never be "happy" for her to go into her own room.

When did you put your DC in their own room? If you made the move before 6 months, is it something you regret or are happy you did? My mum says she put me in my own room the day we got home from hospital and it caused no problems. Since we don't currently have to do "night feeds", we aren't too worried about the argument that having the baby close makes them easier. Would just like some opinions.

There's a growth spurt around 4 months, so she might be waking up hungry. Our dd slept in our room until she was no longer needing night feeds (about 9 months) and was sleeping through. I enjoyed having her there. I anticipate we'll do the same with DS when he arrives in a few weeks.

DD (now 21 weeks) went in to her big cot at about 10 weeks. Her head and toes were banging against the top of the moses basket and there was no way her big cot could fit in our room.

She had always had her daytime naps in her cot so there was very little trauma involved in getting her sleep at night in it.

We dont have any regrets in moving her into her own room. It was nice having her in with us but i think we all sleep better in our own beds/rooms. She is now able to stretch out in her cot too.

The SIDS guidelines suggest that having the baby sleep in the same room as you reduces the risk of cot death. They think this reduction is bases on increased parental surveillance though some people will tell you that it is because the babies mimics the parents breathing pattern. When we moved DD into her room i looked for any evidence to back this theory up but couldn't find anything other than forum posts so i do not believe it has much credibility.

If you are worried about SIDS you could invest in once of those angelcare breathing monitors. You fit them under the cot mattress and the alarm will go off if it doesn't sense movement (breathing).

HTH.

All my three went into their own rooms at 6 weeks. We found that we were waking them up rather than the other way around.

The 6 months recommendation is fairly new, I don't rember it being so long 10 yrs ago, so go with your own instinct.