Putting baby in own room

[Firsttimemumsteph]

Just wanting to hear some of your experiences with putting your baby in their own room. Obviously it is highly recommended to wait until your baby is 6 months before putting them in their own room. But every baby is different.

What was your experience with this? How old was your baby when you did it? What was the outcome? Was the baby okay with it? Etc.

thank you!

DC1 (2011) 9 weeks as he had outgrown the Moses basket and we had no other choice but to move to his cot in his own room anyway. I didn’t think anything of it and I don’t recall the 6 months in the same room advice at that time.
DC2 not even sure I remember the advice being 6 months then either but we had a small cot rather than the Moses in the bedroom and then H and I separated so she was in my room for a year.
DC3 (2023) just before 6 months as he has outgrown the next to me.
Regarding the SIDS guidance I have always made my own risk assessment based on being extremely low risk overall (breastfeeding, non smokers etc.

For us it was one of those things we angsted over with our first and then look back and laugh at.

We did it at 6m. For the next 6y+ we've varied between her sliding by herself all night, one of us sleeping in with her, her sleeping in with one of us, us going in and out like a yoyo etc all night. Things have only improved in the last 3m, but who knows if it'll last. She slept from 11-6 at your babys age 😂

My second has also yo-yo'ed in the same way. Then having their own room and them being in it can be totally different things!

Mine are now adults. I remember being distressed by a friend experiencing a cot death (as it was then called) so kept them with me until 12-18 months. There was no age guidance at the time.

Guidelines are to room share for a minimum of six months, not to move them at six months. For us it was partly a space issue and partly a preference of the child in question. Latest we moved them was 2.5 years, earliest we moved them was 13 months with the worst sleeper who woke up if a sparrow farted. The one who was 2.5 years nearly always made their way back into our room during the night and would be found curled up at the bottom of our bed in the morning. They didn’t want to be in their own room really hence moving them late and because we had their younger sibling, it all gets complicated.

I would be very reluctant to do this at four months at peak risk age and not sure how it would work with evenings - how would you put them to sleep in the evenings safely? Take them up with you and put them in their room? We were very mobile in the evenings when ours were babies and it was annoying when they were a bit older and more aware and we had to implement an actual bedtime and go home to put them to bed, we had a lovely time and did all sorts before that and I’d put that off as long as I could especially with long summer nights

Mine were 16 months and 18 months.

No way would I have even considered under 6 months. Tbh I struggle to imagine it under 12 months but appreciate that's just my view.

DS is 2.5yrs old and still sleeps with us his own floor bed. He has deep sleep so we never wake him up. But he is very close and attached to us so his own room is not on the agenda for a while as he likes to fall asleep newr to us and wake up near to us. It works out fine for us but due DS2 very soon. See how ot goes might be DS1 evicts himself when he sees/hears his lil Bro screaming at night 😂

Where a bigger cot doesn’t fit in the parents room, a parent should sleep in the nursery.

It is crazy to me that people don’t realise this and think that because the cot doesn’t fit a risk should be taken. There should be an exam for pregnancy.

7 month, had no issues and her bedroom was opposite ours I could see her cot from my bed.

In that case I don't know why you'd risk not following the safe sleep guidelines, that's amazing sleep at an age where many babies are up every hour.

It's for SIDS prevention, you'd just never forgive yourself if you were the unlucky ones.

6 months minimum because of Sid’s risk. But also 3-4 months can be a sleep sweet spot, then teething and developemental leaps mess it all up. It’s much easier to re settle a baby in your room than find your dressing gown and stubble down the landing multiple times a night! I waited until a year for one, 18 months for the other

I didn't mean for SIDS...

I meant for what suits them. I'm only looking for helpful advice so if you're not going to be helpful please don't comment.

I understand the risks. I understand why it's a guideline. But I'm asking for is whether people have decided to take parenting into their own hands, to do it before 6 months or after, whether they found it helpful to put baby in their own room at 6 months or whether the baby didn't take to it...and as I have previously stated...I'm just asking for people's EXPERIENCES. Not that I'm 100% going to take on their advice and do what everyone else says...

I've done my research. Thank you.

You're not likely to get many MNers saying yes, I moved my baby into their own room before 6 months and now they're dead. SIDS is a small risk but it's still a risk.

If your DH is bothering you with snoring, what has he tried so far?

We moved our DD at 9 months because she was being disturbed by us in the night. Even rolling over would wake her up! She was like that the whole time, but by 9 months she was feeding less at night so it felt like the right time.

Do you have a white noise machine? For ages we just had Ewan The Sheep but when she went into her own room we bought a specific white noise machine which stays on constantly. It makes any little noises less noticeable.

I think my first was around 9/10 months, she was getting disturbed with me getting up for an early shift.

I’ve got a 4 month old at the min who is in a next to me (the older one had a compact cot which we no longer have), I would like to keep her in with me for a good while yet but the cotbed in her room won’t fit in here - what do people do once the little one grows out of the next to me cot? I can’t really afford to buy another compact cot and mattress? And a travel cot doesn’t seem very comfortable!

our baby was 7 months when we moved him into the cot on his own. From about 5 months I used to put him into the cot for his last nap (say between 4 and 5pm) and stay upstairs with him in that time so that he got used to sleeping in the cot so it wasn’t a massive transition then when he was 7 months

All of mine went into their cot In their own room when they outgrew the Moses basket around 10 weeks old. The bedroom wasn't big enough for cot. No problems and they sleep better.

A travel cot is probably fine - you could try it out? Or is it possible to move another piece of furniture out to accommodate the cot?

Our daughter is three this autumn, she moved out of our room in May this year. Our son was four when he moved to his own room.

DC1 was in our room until age 4.5 years- we didn't have a room for her to move into until we moved house. Breastfed until 3.5 years, slept through the night from 12m, and slept in her own cot from day 1 (had a small bedroom but got rid of a wardrobe to make room).

DC2 stayed in our room until age 3.5 years. We had a room available for her once she was 6m but I breastfed until 3.5 years and it was just easier to keep her with us. Slept through from 13m, also slept in her own cot.
Never had issues with adults disturbing the dc or vice versa. It was nice to be able to hear them breathing through the night, and to be able to comfort them immediately if they needed us in the night, and for them to be able to come to me for a feed in the morning..

My 1st child was about 12 months because we lived in a one bedroom flat. My 2nd and 3rd children at around 5 months once breastfeeding had stopped. We didn't have this new advice back then. Anne Diamond had lost her child to SIDS and the advice was to lay them on their back and to not smoke in the same room as them!!!

I didn't know that - I thought the risk peaked around 4 months and then waned progressively.

We moved our son at four months as he outgrew his bassinet and we couldn't fit the big cot into our bedroom (tiny new build).

This time around we've got a slightly bigger slimline crib so are hoping our daughter can do the full six months.

My wee guys 13 months, we tried him in his own room when he was 11 months, total disaster he's not the greatest sleeper to start with but we thought maybe he was hearing us move about in bed, snore etc... disasterous! He's now 13 months and we tried again a month ago.. a couple weeks of pushing his luck going down but kept it going, he does wake during the night for a little cuddle but 9time out of 10 he goes back down once he's had a cuddle and a shh, you know your own baby, you'll know when the times right for them and yourself

4 months old when I put him in his own room. He slept alot better not being able to hear my chainsnoring DH😂 baby monitor with camera so could check him every time he made a sound😅 21 months old now and loves his bed so 🤷

You're past that point now, but for clarity for anyone reading who isn't aware, the monitor has no impact on the SIDS risk. It's thought the babies regulate their breathing based on their parents' breathing.