Being in same room as newborn

[ivanapoo]

I'm only 22 weeks gone but this is something I've been wondering about a lot.

From what I can tell, guidelines recommend you are in the same room as your newborn pretty much the whole time for first 6 months.

I would like to do this, but how realistic is it? Can baby nap in a light-filled room for example with the radio on? What if baby goes to bed at 8, and you at 10? How does it work?

Any people who have done this out there, and how did you find it? Anyone plan to, but find it was hard to make it work on a practical level?

I'm already expecting criticism from relatives when we go to stay with them with baby (who had their baby sleeping through night in a separate room from 4 weeks) - so any smart answers why it's a good idea also appreciated!

forgot to say we had No 1 in with us until about 10 months as I wanted to wait until summer before moving him into his own room and No 2 stayed in for a year until we moved house as we didn't want to stick in in with No1 and we only had two bedrooms - as soon as we moved he went in by himself and was fine.

We co slept from birth with my now 21 month old. She is now been in her own bed for 2 months, no problems. My older two slept in a Moses basket in our bedroom until at least 6 months. Newborns sleep through a lot of noise!

My DS generally sleeps with us, however, today for example, our bedroom is very hot therefore he will sleep in a travel cot in the dining room.
I am not always around when DS is asleep. I can't be. And in fact my LO does get bothered by noise especially the sudden outbursts produced by DS1.

Normally I take this type of guidelines like what one should ideally do. The reality is, you can't always follow all the guidelines given to you all the time.

DS was with me pretty constantly for the first few months as I would get nervous if I couldn't hear and see him but at about 5 months we got a video monitor and I'd put him in a different room on the same floor to sleep and keep he monitor in sight when I cooked dinner or watched Tv. I found this really helpful when he became more distract able but I wasn't yet comfortable leaving him alone

It's much easier to go with the advice for your first child. When there's just one child in the house you can have them in the same room all the time and can keep noise a bit lower if needed. We had DD in our room till 7 months, mainly in our bed or in her cot next to the bed. I always went to bed with her because I was so tired. It felt very strange when we started putting her in her cot in her own room to sleep.

I suspect it'll be a bit different when Dc2 arrives. Although they learn to sleep through a lot of noise if needed. Last week I had about 7 or 8 friends at my house with all our almost 2 year olds, one has a few week old baby who completely slept through all the toddler racket!