Baby sleep and feeding

[BunnyInTheRavine]

Hi everyone. My son will be turning 9 months soon. We are still co-sleeping. He falls asleep fairly easily between 7 and 8 and can sleep through till 1 am after that he wants to stay on the boob for long periods of time, and when off he's so active in his sleep I can barely sleep trying to keep him from smacking his head on rails or the headboard. I think it's usually due to gas, I've seen it can be cause they might not be active enough in the day, but he's playing all day, he's nearly walking..
I know I need to get him into the cot ( already set up next to the bed) but I don't know where to start, I'm exhausted and I have to put my 7 year old to bed first at 7 which is when he starts to get upset.
I feel at a loss, I didn't co-sleep with DD I was so scared of sids, but with our son I had a very long labour and was exhausted, and it just seemed to happen. I have intermittently tried to use the next to me crib we had but he would wake constantly.
Any tips especially in regard to bedtime with two would be much appreciated. Fyi, I have a partner but he works mainly nights so I need to crack this alone. Thank you.

Do you have enough bedrooms to get a floor bed for his room? Get a double one. Can you put the baby to bed first then your 7 year old? I know every child is different but that seems an early bedtime for that age and you’ll just be getting the baby overtired. My oldest is 4 and my youngest just turned 1. I do their baths and PJs and then take the 1 year old to bed at 7:15/7:30 and my oldest watches tv. Then I get him at 8/8:15 and put him to bed and means we get nice 1-2-1 time to get books etc without a wild baby in tow 😅

Hi meand2Ls, thank you for your comment. I hadn't considered a floor bed, his room wouldn't have enough room but I could do that in ours.
I had considered moving her bedtime, it does seem early in regards to her peers, but she loves her sleep. I think I could trial that and try putting baby to bed first. She's been nervous going to bed recently (suddenly got scared of the dark, and outside noise) so I'm not sure how she'd feel about being downstairs on her own. But maybe if she new the pay off was more reading time 1-2-1,she might go for it 😊 Definitely worth a try. Thank you.

I would also recommend a floor bed, we switched over at 12 months and it's worked wonders, although my daughter's is in her own room. I wonder if bedtime is too early, particularly if he's having a reasonable amount of sleep in the day, as it sounds like he is struggling to get back to sleep in the 2nd half of the night - which I think suggests he isn't tired enough for the night. Or look at reducing his day sleep a bit.

Ok great I'll definitely look into one of those then. We hadn't even thought to set up his room yet as the situation seems too far off that, but reading your comment and on a similar post I'm wondering if that would help also. I could maybe buy a small floor bed.
I don't think I could push his bedtime later as I think he seems over tired by the time I put him to bed, but perhaps shorter naps would help...
In the second half of the night he still seems as tired, just unable to get into a deep sleep. I'm wondering if maybe I should baby proof more of the downstairs so he can crawl/ cruise further. This is all very new to me having an active baby, my 1st walked at 14 months and never really crawled.
Thank you for your advice.

Are you using a play pen or something then? We've never done any baby proofing, I don't really get it! Apart from a stair gate at the top. Def as much activity as you can.
I'd try cutting the naps a bit shorter, how long does he usually have? Overtired isn't a real thing, you want them really tired.
We were able to move away from cosleeping in our bed to my daughter sleeping in her own floor bed but initially I'd join her at some point in her floor bed so I'd definitely recommend a normal single size bed, don't bother with a 'toddler' size.

@Peonies12 hi yes we have a large playpen. Didn't have one with our DD but felt we needed it with ds. House is in need of a declutter and it just seemed easier.
Yesterday I moved all plants and hazardous things off the floor and baby height areas ( this is what I mean by baby proofing) and let ds have the run of the house. He definitely slept more soundly, he still fed every 2 hours after 1.30 am until 7 am but he'd wasn't as active in-between. I also shortened his naps.
Thank you for your ideas, obviously it's early days but I feel positive this is going to help. He was also a lot less whingey yesterday so I think unfortunately I had been making him feel frustrated without the run of the house. He also did a massive poo, which I think was the exercise, sorry if that's tmi 😊. Thank you.