Moving baby into own room - nervous!!

[MaltipooMama]

Hi all, my little one is turning six months old on Sunday and he will be moving into his own big boy bedroom and cot! He's a chunky baby lol and definitely outgrown his crib so I can't drag it out any longer but I'm nervous about the transition and wondering what others' experience was? He's dropped his middle of the night feed, last bottle is now before his 7pm bedtime and then next is 7am, however he stirs a few times throughout the night for his dummy and some mornings (today included) is quite restless from 5.30/6am and wants to wake up to start his day! So slightly apprehensive about what we will do once he's in his own room, as currently my partner and I alternate his care throughout the night so the other one can get a full night's sleep in the spare bedroom every other night. Any tips welcome!!

I moved my baby at 7 months and she slept better, she was breastfeeding and started to wake a bit more so I thought maybe she'd like a bigger cot and being away from the milk a bit
She woke up less and eventually got to 2 wake ups, then one, then sleeping through
I think having more space helped the most, she liked sleeping on her tummy and could get comfy
Best of luck!

@Bunny2006 ah that's super reassuring thank you! So pleased to hear it was a success for you, hopefully I will have a similar experience!

Personally I felt it was a good age, they're not so little they need the close comfort but I felt like moving an older baby that is more 'aware' of the change may get more upset? I don't know if that makes sense :)

@Bunny2006 how many wake-ups did you have between 7pm and 7am before you moved your dd?

I wouldn't be surprised if he slept right through for you in his own room.
I think some babies wake up when adults disturb them.
All mine slept much better in their own rooms.

My little girl is 6 months and moved into her room 2 weeks ago, it's going really well! The first night she woke up a lot (she had been sleeping through the night previously). So for nights 2 and 3 I slept in her room with her (we have a sofa bed in her room as well as the cot). I moved back into our room on night 4 and she's been fine on her own ever since.

I do find I check the baby monitor constantly though and ironically I'm probably getting less sleep now than when she was in with us 😂

Good luck!

So pleased to hear these experiences, makes me much less afraid to bite the bullet and stop overthinking it!

Around 4-5, often just for a super quick feed and back down, she usually fed a long time so I don't think she was hungry, more just stirring then os I was just there wanted a bit of milk, but didn't do this in her own room. Only woke for decent length feed/s

My first baby I didn’t move her in to her own room until 13 months because I was breastfeeding her and she was a terrible sleeper (3/4 wakes every single night). I told myself it was better having her in with us because if I was getting up so much at least I could feed her in my bed and put her back in the cot.

First night I moved her in to her own room she slept through the night and I was absolutely kicking myself that I didn’t do it sooner!

It feels like a big step so I totally get why you’re hesitant.

Do it now while they don’t realise. We were in one bedroom with my kid until he was 4.5 years. When we moved into bigger house it was a nightmare and like having a newborn again. In the end I would take my pillow off my bed and go and sleep in his bed and he would climb in with husband who slept through all the drama

I had to move my little boy to his room at 5 months as he was too big for the next to me. We took it in turns to sleep in there with him for 6 months and he was wake a few times in the night. The minute we stopped that, he started sleeping through, I think we were disturbing him!
My advice though would be to make sure they have done some day naps in the cot first and then also not to rush in when they make noise in the night initially, often after a few minutes they will resettle themselves.
As someone else said, initially you might get less sleep as you will wake up to stare
at the monitor or pop in to check on them, but power through and it will get better.
Good luck!

You’ll find they will probably sleep better in their own room. The dummy thing both my kids did and for the first couple weeks I had to go in when they cried for the dummy. I just ended up putting loads scattered around the cot for them to find

My tip would have been put him in his own room sooner and ditch the dummy. Ships sailing and all that..... My DS had a dummy for 4wks and I took it off him the night he went in to his own room (yes at 4wks). He has never been fussed with over night and has slept 10-12 hrs a night since then (he's 7yrs now).

We moved ours both at 6 months. We were disturbing them. But neither slept through even when we moved them. Currently got a nearly 8 month old who wakes at least twice for milk and then on/off from 5am every day

Both of ours slept much better in their own rooms too!

Thanks for all your replies! Thought I would come back and give you all an update, we decided to start this yesterday to give us the weekend to start it in case it all went to pot! So yesterday he had all three daytime naps in his cot, no problems really just took a little longer (15 mins or so) to get off. Then went back in at 7pm for bedtime, woke up 4/5 times over the first hour and a half (which he would never normally do) but then slept through until 5.15am (which was about the same as normal) got a bit rocky from then as he would NOT go back to sleep! Normally when he does this and he's next to one of us we will just hold his hand while we're lying down and he'll drift back off but no, he was fully awake and ready to start the day 😂 it was my turn last night so I was up from when he was, he went back down for a nap at 8am and slept for an hour and 40 mins which is unheard of! Second and third naps also not too bad and he's gone back to bed at 7 today and woken up twice so far. So a bit mixed so far but I'm remaining hopeful!

Is the matress nice and comfy?
Its worth checking

Yes it feels great, it's much better (but quite different) to the one he's used to, so may be an element of it feeling different for him perhaps

I’m pretty confident all will be fine! My two went in at around 6/7 months too. The cot had been in our room so they were used to it.
Neither seemed to be too bothered by being in their own room at all. In fact, we all slept better.
I enjoyed the lovely new bedtime routine of story, feed then in the cot and also not having to tiptoe around our bedroom for fear of waking them.

I think the transition is harder for us because we are suddenly aware of the distance after being used to our little ones staying so close.

If you have any worries and you have the space you could always do the crib to cot transition in your room then once settled you could move the cot in.
Good luck, hope it goes well xx

If you’re not ready to ditch the dummy yet then get him to start replacing it himself- it’ll help with the transition. At 6 months he should just about be able to manage it. Start by putting it in his hand then guiding his hand to his mouth every time you give it to him. Then you’ll want to chuck at least 10 in the cot (not kidding, if we did 9 there would be issues) because even once they nail putting it in they’re rubbish at finding them because object permanence is still developing and leave a dim night light on, I don’t rate the glow in the dark dummies as they tend to lose their glow in the early hours right when you need them to be visible so that’s why I’d do a nightlight instead. If baby is prone to chucking stuff you need to wait for them to fall asleep then creep in and sprinkle them round the cot! And then I found they’d sleep through to a much more sociable 6.30/7. I assume they were still stirring in the early hours, but just grabbed a dummy and went straight back to sleep because I’d always find a different one in their mouth in the morning than the one they went to bed with. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your good luck messages! Had a much better night last night, he went to bed at 7pm as normal and didn't wake up until nearly 11pm! As expected he'd spat his dummy out and went straight back to sleep after I'd popped it back in. Throughout the night he woke up only 2-3 times (again due to losing dummy!) and went straight back to sleep after I'd replaced it. He then slept until 6am this morning woo hoo! Was very happy with that, I installed blackout curtains yesterday and I think that's helped with him not waking up when the sun comes up. Thank you for the tip on scattering dummies, I'll be sure to try that as it seems like that's the only thing waking him up! Only drawback is, new fear has been unlocked 😅 I'm now not sleeping because I'm getting up and checking that he's breathing every half hour or so, so I've ordered a breathing monitor to put under his mattress that sounds an alarm if there's any problems. when he was next to me I'd just put my hand on his chest every now and then to check his breathing and I'm getting major anxiety that I can't do that now! Hopefully my new contraption will help!

Try it and see. My eldest son was relegated to his own room aged five months as it was like sleeping with a little grunting hedgehog, he was fine, I just nipped in to feed him if he woke.
My daughter hated it and was in and out of her room and ours until she was four. It was like musical beds, in hindsight I should have brought her cot back in.
The third one would wake in his own room from 7 months but no bother for me as one of the others would run in and talk to him.
Good luck. Every baby is different, hopefully it is a smooth transition but if not try to be comforted by the fact they love to be near you!

I've just put my little one in his own room last night. It went horribly 🙈 hoping for a better experience tonight! He's nearly 11 months, I should've done it sooner but he's my last baby and couldn't bear to move him before now 🙈

My youngest has only just moved into his room this weekend at 15months old….partly for the same reason 🙈 he’s my last so I couldn’t bear to move him 😂 he was moving at 12 months but then we had teething, separation anxiety from starting nursery and one illness after another so I kept pushing it back…..but i finally have my bedroom back! 😂😂

@HMW1906 aren't we soppy 🙈 it's amazing how our bedroom feels huge now the cribs gone!
It's gone horribly again tonight! Hope yours is going ok! X