Sleep training with only one room for both kids

[Lolarosemama]

We only have our bedroom where little one is at the moment and then the other where dc3 is and where dc 8 months will be joining.

However we need to sleep train as currently little one will only sleep in my arms or wakes every half hour in the cot. I’m losing my sanity from the lack of sleep.

Whats the best way to sleep train in our current setup?? Dc3 is going to be disturbed regardless as our house isn’t big. All just feels a bit stressful at the moment.

Please no “just cosleep”, I’m a poor sleeper and it just doesn’t work for me.

Take turns, one of you sleeping downstairs with the older one while the other does the sleep training with the little one?

Or swap the children round and have the older one in your room on a camp bed until the younger one is sleeping through?

Why did I not think of either of these 😂 shows how few brain cells I currently have with the lack of sleep 🤪

Why does the 8 month old not sleep? My youngest used to jump while sleeping which would wake him. I found sleeping bags where his hands/arms were inside the sleeping bag. When he jumped the sleeping bag kept him asleep and was a lifesaver as I was exhausted. Could this help? I feel for you as sleep or lack of it is so hard.

Sleep training does not take long so perhaps the older dc could stay over at grandparents for a couple of days.

Could you sleep in with the other children and your husband co sleep with baby for a while ?

Lyndsey Hookaway on Instagram is a great resource for baby and infant sleep. Hope things improve for you.

I think we need a bit more information, like do you breastfeed it bottle feed? how does baby fall asleep (does he)she go down awake, fall asleep in your arms, feed to sleep etc. Do you and your partner take it in turns to settle baby?
From speaking with other parents I think lots of babies don't sleep through the night at 8 months, neither of mine did, they were both over 1...so maybe don't expect a full night sleep very soon....but I certainly think you can improve on what you're getting at the moment. You must be absolutely exhausted! Lots of people look negatively on sleep training... Maybe if it was called sleep learning it would be more accepted.

We are currently doing something similar, but it's getting rid of the dummy as a sleep association.

Toddler is with grandparents for 3 nights (pick them up in the day to do our usual weekend - but able to do this because we are close by).

First night woke once, bottle back to bed, woke 2 hours later. Up for the day.

Last night didn't wake until 4.30 (5.30 really). Hoping tonight will be the night 🤞🏻.

Toddler is back Monday eve.

Thanks for your support everyone. I really like the ideas of looking at it as sleep learning.

Baby is breastfed so I do understand it usually takes them longer to sleep through the night, but at the moment they’re barely sleeping through an hour unless in with me. I’m such a bad co-sleeper, I just can’t sleep!

Thankfully we’ve managed to draft in the grandparents! They will have 3yo for 3 nights, so bring on the sleep learning 💪🏽

If it was me I would definitely have the older one in your room for 1/2 weeks maybe just in the mattress on the floor (so he doesn’t get used to sleeping in the bed with you cos then you’ll have that issue!).

Work on baby sleeping in the cot in your room first. You need to break the habit of sleeping in your arms before they go into a separate room altogether, that's a massive jump and wherever the 3 year old goes they are definitely going to be disturbed if baby is not only not in bed with you but in a different room

I weaned my baby off night breastfeeding at a similar age by timing the feeds at night then slowly reducing the time for each feed by about 30 seconds each night. Baby started sleeping through before I got the time down to 0 anyway!

Breastfeeding doesn't take them longer to sleep through. It's not how they feed how well they sleep. What's your routine like? I found that helps x

I had this issue with my 3 year old, and then 6 month old younger brother. I had sleep trained my older 2 with no issues as they each went into their own bedroom but the youngest was not that lucky 😂
the solution I found that worked best was to put my 3 year old in my bedroom so the youngest was alone in the room. My youngest is now 1 this week and it worked perfectly 😊 they both sleep wonderfully together in the same bedroom.

You may find it doesn't affect your eldest as much as you'd think. I put my youngest in the same room when she was a similar age and still waking multiple times a night. My eldest never woke up when baby cried or I went to in to soothe.

Sleep training pre-6 months is not a great idea. https://www.iflscience.com/should-you-let-a-baby-cry-it-out-here-s-what-the-science-says-65667?fbclid=IwAR2DYkeW469-9PBXPxf9ud3LbelqRiXw1FnErV6uLlZAo8UsfylUJJTZJ2M

My baby wouldn't sleep anywhere but on us until I bought a purflo sleep tight baby bed. It's like a nest but actually approved for unsupervised overnight sleep (the others are risky). It was honestly a game changer and I wish I'd found it for baby #1 as she was the same and we were terribly sleep deprived.

Just an update - from our toddlers 3 day sleepover.
She came back last night and then both went into the same room.
The baby woke at 12.30am, but didn't wake the toddler (or if they did, they went straight back to sleep!) and settled themselves with a few mins.

Didn't hear from either of them until 6.45, where they were chatting to each other before I went in to get them! ❤️

This is so helpful thank you!! We’ve got the grandparents helping us for a few nights too so I’ll let you know how it goes.

@LesserSpottedDalmation ours isn’t younger than 6 months and we won’t be doing the cry it out method so we’re all good ☺️