when do you put your baby 'in bed'?

[MrsCLH]

My ds is 6 weeks old. Up until now we've been keeping him downstairs with us until the last feed at about 10pm and then feeding him upstairs before putting him straight in his crib. The previous feed is usually about 7-7.30pm and he doesnt really settle after that feed so sometimes this makes for a very stressful evening. Do any of u put your baby to bed in your room before you go to bed? Ie is it safe for me to put him up to bed after the 7 o clock feed in the hope he will go to sleep and we can have an evening?

Not sure what you mean by safe? SIDS guidelines are for the baby to sleep in the same room as you til 6 months.

I started putting ds to bed in the bedroom once he was falling asleep for a few hours in the living room in the evening - think it was at about 8 weeks. Does your ds still cluster feed on and off between 7-10pm?

We used to put them to sleep for the night in the carrycot and put this in the dining room where it was darker and less noisy, but DD's could still hear us and vice versa. We then took the carrycot up to our room when we went to bed.

I suppose it depends on whether you want to get into some sort of routine. I thrive on routine and from about 10 weeks we had a bedtime routine, every night we bath her, feed her, put her in her sleeping bag with some soothing music, and sometimes she drifts off to sleep. We start the routine each night at about 6pm. It works great for us.

I think its safe for baby to sleep on their own in your bedroom (mine was in her own room from 6 weeks) as long as the environment is safe and you have a monitor.

I am more sane now I have my evenings back.

The SIDS guidelines recommend that your baby should be sleeping in the same room as you until 6 months, including in the day. So if your DS settles to sleep at 7 he should be in a moses basket in the same room as you downstairs, and then you would take him up when you go to bed. But that's not always practical. DD2 made it quite clear around 6/8 weeks that she wanted to sleep in her cot - she would cry in the evening if in arms or in the moses basket, but would sleep soundly in her cot. So I would put her in the cot and go back downstairs, but check her frequently.

Needless to say her 'perfect baby' phase hasn't lasted and now at 5 months she's often sleeping in my arms either upstairs in bed or downstairs .

DD1 on the other hand didn't settle at all in the evenings till at least 3/4 months, so would spend every evening downstairs while I fed her/rocked her/bounced on yoga ball. She got better after that but still only as long as she was being held. I did try a few times to settle her in the cot but she wasn't having any of it so I just kept her downstairs. Luckily most tv programmes have subtitles now so I just used to watch it quietly.

The SIDS guidelines say that baby should not sleep in a different room until 6 months old at all times including naps and early evening. However for many people this isn't practicable and I started a bedtime routine at 14 weeks and DD went to sleep in her crib next to my bed a few hours before me and DD went to bed.

I have to say it was a massive relief to have the evening back to ourselves.

DD and DS were both downstairs with us in the evenings until about 8-10 weeks - after that we put them to bed upstairs at about 6.30.

Dd is 10 weeks old, she sleeps in her moses basket still and is downstairs until we go up, she is however in the front room whilst we are in the kitchen having our evening meal or pottering about. She is getting a bit big for her basket now though so will have to go upstairs in her cot soon, will put the monitor in the room and check frequently.