If you co-slept...when did you stop, why and how?

[MooMa83]

Just that really. I didn't intend to co-sleep with my 4 month old, but did so through necessity. I actually quite enjoy it now, am getting a fair bit of sleep and hardly register the night feeds. I do think about the future though, and will at some stage I'm sure like my bed back with DH (who is relegated to the spare room). Would like to hear others experiences...thank you for sharing.

We moved our son into the cot at 6 months using the gradual retreat method (can be found on google) it worked really well x

From around 6m, DS went in the cot at the start of the night and then co-slept from his first feed. About 9m he was waking less (2/3 times not 6-10 times) and I started putting him back in his cot after feeds. We night weaned at 11m and it helped he was not right next to me.

With my eldest we did the Jay Gordon method of night weaning around 14 months as I was pregnant again and finding it all too exhausting as he wanted to feed lots overnight. Once that was done he slept a lot better and we moved him to cosleeping with my husband in a double bed in my son's room.
I got a few months of blissful solo sleeping until my daughter arrived and then we had a set up of one parent in with each kid for a year and a half. At that point (kids aged 1.5 and 3) we put them in together and they happily coslept with each other for years. I'm convinced we got much more sleep because they just went to each other for a cuddle if they woke up at night and we knew nothing about it. Only if they were unwell did we change things and go back to one parent per kid for a few nights until the kid was better.
They only stopped cosleeping with each other around ages 6 and 7, it was quite gradual and natural as we had another room and designated it as my daughter's and every now and then she would choose to sleep alone in there. We then moved house and they picked their own bedrooms and slept separately after the move with no fuss at all.

She used to sleep in with me, would not entertain the idea of sleeping alone. We had a side along bed/cot for her, she would fall asleep in with me and then i'd slide her into her bed when it was time for me to sleep. She was about 1.
That moved to getting her to fall asleep in the side along bed while I lay in mine. Then that bed was moved to the opposite wall. Then when she was 2 it was moved to her own room. She has been fine ever since, only came back for nightmares and illness.

His cot is in his own room and no matter what we would go in when he cried, rock him back to sleep and put him back in. Like I said first few days were brutal having to go back and to from our room to his and I did nearly crack but he eventually just started getting used to waking up and realising he was still in his cot and didn’t mind it!

First one 18months to make room for the next one. Next one was 2.

Both times we got them a new bed and it was a really exciting moment for them. We started off with it next to ours for a bit and then moved it into their room. Went really smoothly with the new beds but Waldorf attempts failed.

About 6 months for all of them, straight into their own because our noises and movements were starting to interrupt their sleep as much as the other way round. Plus I wanted my bedroom back and to be able to watch telly in the evenings (although we had been doing this anyway but the sound very low/subtitles) and have sex in bed!
Best decision on our part to be honest, I’ve never liked having kids in my bed and only did it to make feeding easier in the middle of the night.

My first would never co-sleep, always wanted her own space & still does.
My second would never have slept if not next to me. We moved him to own (double) bed at around 2 years old and i co-slept with him there for a while. Hes 4 now and i still need to lay with him for him to go to sleep but he then is fine by himself the rest of the night.
Having had two with such differing needs im convinced as parents we should just roll with what they are showing us they need.
If i had a third id just follow their lead too.
I dont know anyone still co-sleeping at 17 so im sure they all separate themselves eventually in their own time.

honestly - still doing it - can't get DD out of my bed and she's just turned 10!!! But I am a LP so it's comforting for both of us in a way. I realise this is really long and we will stop very soon given her age.

Moved DD to her own floor bed in her room at 21 months. She's 2Y6M now and still wakes in the night but was fine in her room. Weaned her fully from the breast just after 2 as well and she took to that surprisingly well.

We stopped co sleeping every night at about 7 months when we sleep trained. But she still comes in with me (at 3) when she’s sick, or has a nightmare, or wakes early and I want some more Zzzz.

When he has about 3. Moved him into his own room - used to be the spare room so he took the double bed that was in there as his own. Slept in there with him for a few weeks. Then started leaving him in there. Was really easy and he only tries coming into mine now when he's ill.

My son has SN and still sleeps in my bed. He is 11. I've tried over the years to get him in his own bed, but with no luck so far.
We sleep under different blankets though as he's a nightmare for taking all the duvet

About two and a half? They were ready. Don't get me wrong, they continued to come in until about 12!! But it got less and less frequent.

When they sleep though, so when Dd Was 2.5 and DS is 18 months and is mostly still in bed with me but does some long stretches in his own bed.

We also ended up cosleeping through sheer necessity, and I remember feeling so in the dark about how to stop as the only cosleepers I heard about continued until at least 3 (absolutely the best decision for lots of people but I personally needed to call it a day sooner particularly as she started to sleep latched on).

At around 6-7 months (having not previously been possible) I was able to transfer her to the cot after feeding to sleep and her to stay asleep during the transfer and my husband could resettle her until she joined me for the night when I went up. She still woke every 30-90mins and this didn't work for naps.

Then at 9 months for lots of boring reasons bedtime became really lengthy, I hit a wall and so we did a modified version of sleep training (we read A LOT of guides in the run-up and did what felt best at the time and in line with her temperament). The goal was for her to be able to be put down drowsy but awake which worked, but she was also then able to sleep slightly longer stretches (still waking at least 4x a night but I felt ok to manage that without cosleeping). She then night weaned herself after I day weaned (easier than anticipated) at 12months.

I've recently started co-sleeping with my toddler as the 18m regression was so bad and now I have a super king it's bliss!

I've said this before, but always on these threads when I read all the different ways people tangle themselves up in, to get their tiny offspring to sleep on their own... I think of all the separate bedroom threads where it's unthinkable to sleep apart from the spouse. So much hand wringing for grown adults but tiny people who are utterly dependant on their caregivers to feel safe have to.

Sleep is king, no matter how it happens. It just doesn't matter.

I have co slept with my 3, with all of them I stopped night feeding at around 12-15 months and my husband took over the nights and co sleeping. My eldest continued to co sleep with him until he was 4, my middle and youngest went straight into a cot at 15 months and my husband rocked them back to sleep if they woke (but wakings reduced once I night weaned)

We also never intended to co-sleep. In fact it was the 1 thing I said I would never do! 😂
DD (now 11m) co-slept from 11 weeks, when she started waking every half hr otherwise, to 5m.
At 5m she had started to get much more wriggly in the bed and take up more room which was disturbing both my partner and my sleep. So we decided it had to end.
I debated transitioning her back to the next to me but decided that sounded a bit daft given in another month or so she would outgrow it.
We had always put her in the next to me at the beginning of the night for as long as it lasted (started out as 30mins and by 5m I was sometimes getting 90mins) so we decided to move that to her cot. So we moved her bedtime routine to her room and started by her doing the 60-90mins at the beginning of the night in her cot. Then after a couple of weeks decided we would just go for it and start resettling her in there.
Amazingly she just accepted it! However she did go from 1 night feed back to 2. And dropping that has been another issue all together.
I think it helped that she is a tummy sleeper and by chance we moved her just at the point she started to be able to roll herself onto her tummy.