Co sleeping with 3 week DS

[edwfaith]

So I've made the choice to co sleep with my 3 week old DS, have looked into how to do it safely ect... please can someone with experience advise me on how I'll be able to transition from co-sleeping to him sleeping in his moses basket a little later on and after 6 months in his own nursery...

It depends on the baby really, my first co slept with us from around 8 weeks (and stopped around 3 years)!! But.... It was partly due to is having only a one bed flat, also she was my first so I was reluctant to stop, my second co slept from around 4 weeks and happily just went in cot around 3-4 months, I put her in the cot during the day so she felt safe, best just to play it by ear, do to listen to others (horror stories) of you'll never get them out your bed. People used to tell me mine would never sleep in her own, as soon as we moved from our one bed flat (when she was 3)! She went into her own bed and own room no trouble, do what works for you and your family, as the mum you will know whats best when the time comes to stop co sleeping.

I meant don't listen to others horror stories!

Co-sleeping safely means no pillows and no duvets. Baby must lie flat on the back. I co-slept for nearly a year with DS. And happily transitioned into a cot at a year with minimum fuss. Don't worry too much about transitioning at this stage. The main thing is to a) get as much sleep as you can b)in the gentlest way possible create good sleep habits. So a nice bedtime routine that is very consistent is always helpful. Then sleep cues that suggest that going to sleep is not a descent into scary darkness. At this age he will want to feed at odd hours, go through growth spurts and then there will be teething in a few months. So it will all be up and down. But if you persevere with creating good sleep habits it will be fine. A lot of people assume that co-sleeping = breastfeeding all night/cuddling to sleep. I managed to co-sleep without doing either (not at 3 weeks obviously- DS fed constantly at that point), and I suspect it made the transition easier.

My DS co slept from day 1 (in our bed not in a co-sleep that was still too far away ). We never forced the issue of sleeping in his cot in his own room and it was very much 2 steps forward and one step back. When he started going to bed earlier we started putting him in his cot. If he woke and wouldn't settle we would bring him in with us (or downstairs on the sofa if we were still up). Then started putting him in his cot for naps with the same attitude re:settling. Just before his birthday he started refusing to go in the cot at all unless he was fast asleep and would refuse to settle if he even stirred and realised he was there. At 13mo we got him a toddler bed and since then he has slept in there for most of the night only occasionally (once or twice a week) needing to come through to us in the night. He will be 2 in June and has just started sleeping through the night fairly reliably.

Compared to other similar age babies who have never co-slept his sleep is the good end of average and we don't have the issue of the cot to bed transition which most of my nct friends are starting to fret about.

Basically enjoy it, follow your instincts and your child's lead and don't worry about the future as everything changes all the time.

I transitioned at about four months into a co sleeper crib attached to our bed. DS woke every few hours through the night so I started with just one wake up putting him in there once he fell back asleep, then a few weeks later 2 wake ups and so on, he coped with the transition well with minimum fuss. Followed a similar pattern when we moved him into the cot in his own room too,