switching from co-sleeping, to the cot!!! Trouble!

[waiting4bambino]

I was warned!! Lots of my friends said never to co-sleep as the baby wouldnt go into the cot!! However, i asked a lot of you on here, and got some really positive replies, so have enjoyed many blissful nights of all 3 of us sleeping!! However, my dd has now started getting bigger, thrashing about and kicking, and its keeping us awake!! Have decided to put her into the cot etc, she starts off there around 830pm, after her feed, then when i go to bed, i put her monitor on and the fun begins!! I'm back and forth all the time, there are periods of sleep for both of us, but i'm always startled out of sleep by her cries! Rarely, i can soothe her in the cot and she'll go back off, but most of the time have to get her out and rock her a while, and usually, as soon as i put her back down, she miraculously becomes awake the minute her head touches the cot!! After 4 or 5 hours of this i usually resort to her being in our bed again!! Any tips?!!

Hmm, not sure that my experience is directly relevant here but when we went for co-sleeping to cot she screamed her head off the first night ... for an hour and a quarter, second night for nearly an hour and then for a few minutes the third night ... and then it got better but she is now 7mo and we still have battles and she still sleeps witih me some of the night. I think the key is to tough out some screaming but that said, I am spectacularly bad at it, particularly in the middle of the night ...

IGNORE all the 'rod for your own back' comments! It's balls.

Not judging you at all, but I feel a bit sorry for your dd going from being all snug with you to being annexed suddenly to a cot! She's missing you. Maybe it's too dramatic a change. I co-slept for first four months and then it seemed to be stopping us all from sleeping well so I started using a bedside cot (or rather, just a cot I took the side off and attached to the bed). I'd do the last BF of the night more or less in the cot myself then gently pull away. A few nights of this and he was going down in it no problem. After a month or so we've moved the cot away and put its side up. In another month or so we'll try moving it to another room. I'm going at his pace, so not many tears and less traumatic all round.

Thanks for your help girls - i might resort to having the cot by the side of my bed. It will be a lot easier i think.. i can't bear the crying, for her sake and mine!

Hi, give Lullaby Babies a try. There's a lady on there who has gone from cosleeping to cot so they can start using the Ferber technique. She gives a few good tips on how to make it simpler. Good luck!

Sorry the link I gave above takes you to their home page. Their baby sleep blog is here.