babies sleeping in own room-how young?

[TeaAddict235]

I know that in the antenatal classes it is advised to make newborns sleep in the same room as parents until 6months, but our 3 month old has outgrown his Moses basket and the cot won't fit in the room with us. Baby is a noisy sleeper and ebf means that he eats every 2-3 hours. Plus his room is right next to ours and we sleep with the bedroom doors open. When DH leaves for work I bring DS into bed with me to feed and cosleep around 5:30am.

what was the earliest that your newborn slept in their own room?

ds: about 4 weeks. he'd outgrown his Moses basket (and a massive poo meant it was unusable) and our room at the time was too small for travel cot or cotbed.
dd: about 5 months. she was smaller so stayed in the basket longer, had more problems with illness etc which made me nervous to move her, we'd moved house by that point so her room was bare plaster for ages and our room was bigger. she moved when our noise started disturbing her too much.

I think, although the advice is given with the best intentions, it's not always possible to follow them to the letter and you have to adapt them to your personal circumstances.

Can you move out another piece of furniture to accommodate a cotbed?

When DS grew out of his crib we put him in a travel cot.

The whole thing about them sleeping in your room for six months isn't to do with your hearing them, it's so they can hear your breathing and learn to self regulate their own, I.e your breathing stops them forgetting to breathe.

DS stayed in our room til about 9 months, when we moved house. It felt really weird moving him out!

About a week .

DS moved into his own room at 8 weeks old.
Every time he made a noise he woke me up, and whenever I turned over he'd start wriggling. He'd also grown out of his Moses basket by that point.

Although it's recommended to wait until 6 months I think if you keep a good eye on the temperature and make sure the baby is wrapped up safely I don't see the harm.
DS ended up needing a sleeping bag as he would push the blankets down, or even sleep sidewards for some reason then he'd wake up crying cause he was cold!

Having the sleeping bag made me feel better about it as he was wrapped up nicely and didn't have any blankets to kick off or pull over his face!

Tea addict we were the same

We bought a travel cot to do the but I didn't think it looked that comfortable so at five months we moved him

thanks for your responses ladies. we only have our bed, a chest of drawers and a boiler room in our bedroom; so there's not much room left even with the Moses basket. I am really scared of SSids to be honest so I am willing to cosleep in the guest room with baby until 6months but I know that that is unfair to DH. On the other hand baby snores like a dinosaur (bless him), and I can hear him from our room. But you say that it is for their benefit? They didn't explain that as the reason at the antenatal classes.

You seriously feel you are depriving your dh by trying to keep your baby safe? I assume he has an interest in having a healthy baby too?
You will always find people on such threads telling you their baby always slept in another room and was fine (I'm quite sure I was put straight into my own room myself). So if you are looking for permission to not follow the safest practice then there you have it.
But you need to accept that you are taking a risk. As you are if you co-sleep without following safe cosleeping guidelines.
I couldn't do it myself but it's up to you.

..applies to daytime naps too if you weren't aware.
Sorry if my post sounds harsh but I couldn't imagine putting my dh's comfort before my baby's life - nor could he for that matter.

Both of mine around 8 weeks - and the second's room was on a different floor to mine.

I also couldn't sleep properly with them in the room, and would have been a far less happy, playful parent with only tiny snatches of sleep up till six months. Plus my DH snores.

I don't know anyone who kept their babies with them 24/7 even during daytime naps. Mine would have been absolutely toxic and miserable with exhaustion if they couldn't sleep in peace twice a day during naps - particularly with a boisterous toddler running around! And I certainly couldn't have left said boisterous toddler downstairs while I sat with a baby for two hours while they slept... But yes, I suppose you need to know what the guidelines are... but every year they have new things, new guidelines. God knows what rules there'll be in 10 years' time!I feel sorry for the next generation of parents.

I was super paranoid with my PFB! He was in my room
Till one year, mostly because he had severe reflux and I was too afraid of him being sick and me not noticing - he was a noisy sleeper, but I would have slept less if he wasn't in the same room anyway! I needed him close so I knew he was ok. It is true about regulating their breathing so a few weeks old is definately too young. 3 months maybe not so bad, if it were me though - if be moving the chest of drawers out and the cot in.

10 weeks when DS outgrew Moses basket as he snored like a gruffalo.
I think one of those heart rate baby monitors would suit your situation if you don't have one already. Thing buzzes like a banshee if baby stops breathing - there's no way you'd sleep through the alarm.

My boy went into his own room on his first night home. And I slept on a mattress on the floor for 6 months. One night a week I would swop with my husband
He was the best rested new dad ever and so amazingly helpful. Will do the same for our second child.

Both of mine spent 2 weeks in our room and then into a swinging crib in the nursery (next door, doors open plus monitors). I think it's what people feel happy to do really.

He's still in our room at 8 months. Moved the 2 chest of drawers out to his room and his cot in to ours. Not loads of space but we cope.

We put our daughter down for daytime naps in the cot in her own room from about 4 or 6 weeks, to get her used to the cot while she was still having night time sleep in the Moses basket. When she outgrew the basket at around 10 or 12 weeks, we dragged the cot into our room. Felt like a squeeze at first, but we soon got used to it. We have just this weekend moved the cot (and her!) back into her own room - she is 5 and a half months.

To be honest, we would have moved her sooner, she had started to wake in the night again, having previously been "sleeping through", but just to chatter away to herself, so waking us up as well. We didn't have a curtain up in her room, but that has finally arrived, so she is now in her own room! And we have gone back to sleeping through (god knows if she is waking up chatting, but we can't hear her if she is!).

About 7-8w, I think. Daytime naps she spent mostly with us but only because she didn't like to nap on her own. From about 3w she went up to our room for the first few hours on our own anyway, she would not sleep in the living room unless we all sat in pitch dark silence...

It's not law to keep your baby with you for the first six months, it is the current recommendation - along with the temperature of the room, baby sleeping on its back, particular bedding, no smoking in the house etc. Plenty of people moved their baby to their own room very young, but equally plenty of parents keep their baby with them even for naps for 6 months. You'll get stories either way. All you can do is read the guidance, and make your own educated decision about what you want to do.

From day 1 when Dd decided she didn't like the Moses basket!

DS didn't go into his own room until 9 months I was too paranoid worried to move him into his own room before that.

My general rule of thumb with these things is how would you feel or could you rationalise it again if the worst happened. They are only guidelines but SIDS is v scary. I'm surprised at ante natal the reasons weren't explained.

I too always thought the 6 month recommendation was about them hearing you breathing so keep them breathing. But I questioned this as I breathe reeeaally lightly when I'm sleeping (DP often wakes me when checking if I'm still alive ). Apparently it's something to do with the carbon dioxide you breath out, don't know the full details.

I would be worried about the boiler room in your bedroom! I hope you have a carbon monoxide alarm fitted.

And you really don't want to be getting to and having to go into another room everytime he wakes. DS 9m still wakes every 3 hours to feed and is still in with us for that very reason.

Is there room in the guest room for a cot/all 3 of you?

Obviously your options are limited, you will do what you think is best or what you are most comfortable with

Forgot to add DS slept in something similar to this once he outgrew his Moses basket.

6 weeks. He was a grunter and kept us awake! But our rooms were next to each other, doors next to each other and we could hear each other, just less so.

28 weeks. We had an Amby natures nest which we used from 10 weeks until 28 when he moved into cot bed in his own room. Cot bed was too big to fit in our room but there was no way I was taking any chances, he's too precious.
Amby nest was a magic baby sleep device, he slept through the first night in it and the odd illness excepted has slept through every night since :)

I was a bad mother and DD1 slept in the same room as us for precisely 6 days, DD2 did better and it was 6 weeks before she was chucked out. DS was in with us over a year but he was preemie so I was more concerned about SIDS and we were running out of space. It was too long for me TBH. We don't smoke and they were all EBF, the younger two coslept a fair bit though.

You have to make the decision yourself, the guidelines are there but if you you are putting them to sleep on their back, aren't smoking, don't take drugs, are BFing then those are all more significant factors than them being in the same room as you. Since you are EBFing you can cosleep (check the guidelines for how to do it safely).