Question for co-sleepers with 7 month old babies...

[csqm]

...How do your babies settle to sleep during the day (self soothing in cot, rocked to sleep, other?). DS is 7 months old and we have always co-slept at night since he was born and he feeds a lot during the night (100%BF since birth, no bottles). He always needs help to go to sleep (being rocked around in our arms or in sling/pushchair) and we never put him in his cot unless he is already asleep (not that we haven't tried!). I need to move him to settle to sleep in a cot during the day as I am back to work soon and he will be in nursery but not sure how difficult this will be and what would be the best method? I guess my question is whether it is possible for babies to self settle to sleep in a cot during the day whilst still co-sleeping at night with their mums and how to achieve this? Thank you for sharing your experiences! [PS: DS used to accept dummy -which would help him to go to sleep easier and after a lot of training and insistence on my part to help him to go to sleep more easily during the day - but now rejecting it...]

oh god! Thank you for posting this. I completely forgot this aspect of nursery :( My DS is now 10 mo. takes dummy and goes to sleep if I/ DH lie next to him for a few minutes. He used to be rocked - a Lot, for a long time, to loud rock music to be put to sleep. I could not lift him anymore after 6 months, so we moved to sitting and rocking gently and then not rocking at all. During the day also I shut the curtains, lay him on his side, close my eyes and lie with him, he sleeps in a few minutes (talks LOUDLY if he isn't!).
I shall watch this thread.[sigh] another thing to worry about.

Co-sleeper with a 4.5 month old here. She often self-settles during the day. I find that if she's distracted she old falls asleep (my ds chatting while sitting beside her for instance). I often sit with her smiling at her and she smiles back and falls asleep. If she fusses at all I pick her up and settle her and put her back down (on the floor in the sitting-room) and sit beside her or move around the room. But this was not the case with ds at that age, or any age for that matter. We didn't co-sleep from the start with him though and I genuinely believe although a large part of it is their disposition, some of it has to do with feeling that it's ok to fall asleep - that sleep isn't something they are forced into.

co sleeping 7 month old here who is unable to self settle in the day (she usually falls asleep in the buggy, car or while feeding on my lap) so watching with interest.

I think I might have to cancel going back to work in favour of being a stay at home mum so I do not have to inflict her poor ability to sleep onto a childminder or nursery!

Thanks for your responses. I think this is going to be a long journey. He is already settling at nursery (half days only at the moment). He is so excited when playing next to the other babies that he does not even mind that I leave the room (which is great); but when he gets tired he simply does not know how to settle to sleep without me around holding him! ...

First thought that springs to mind is, let the nursery sort it out! Not sure if your children will be doing half or full days at nursery, but before my DS started (full-time) I had been rocking him to sleep in pram with dummy for ages to get him off to daytime naps, which was a real strain on the nerves (will he, won't he? every day). I was really worried about how the nursery would cope without my 'special methods'! I was convinced he would be the only one not to sleep. As it was, they just put the lights out, pulled the blinds down and put all the little ones down to sleep. They have never reported to me any difficulties with my DS napping during the day (he has been in nursery a few times a week since 5 mths old and is now going on 3). I couldn't believe it! Since then, we've been able to do what they do and ditch the pram nap in the corner of the room and use his cot instead! Again, lights out, curtains drawn, into your cot just like at creche every day for nap.....and now it's all he knows. You might be surprised that the nursery might help with the daytime sleeps - they're the experts at this and they've done it with lots of children! Peer pressure seems to help with babies/children - when the rest of the room goes down to nap I think little children just follow what the others do.

Sorry if this isn't relevant if your children aren't attending nursery full-time or there for nap time.

Sorry should also have added: we weren't co-sleeping with DS, but from my experience he would have coped just fine with co-sleeping with us at night and following the nursery's method for daytime napping. As long as it's consistent every day, I think babies/children just accept 'this is what I do for nap in day' and 'this is what I do for nighttime sleep'. DS copes with speaking one language at nursery and a different one at home, just accepts that the way life is! I reckon the different sleep arrangements won't be a problem.

HTH.

I had the same questions/worries when I was on maternity leave.

I co-slept both during the day and night (and still do, to some extent) with my son. He went to nursery at 9 months and, from the very beginning, has taken his daily naps without me. I don't know how the nursery manages this (and to tell you the truth, haven't asked - I don't want to ruin the magic).

I really wish I had spent more of my maternity leave not worrying about this, so just trust it will all be fine - and it will!

Thanks. At the moment he is only doing a few hours each day as I wanted him to get used slowly to the nursery environment. So far he has not even slept there once (in 2 weeks)! when tired just cries and does not know how to go to sleep. In the meantime started refusing to sleep more than 20 min without me even here at home (I am quite tired) and also started to cry a lot with his dad! I am starting to suspect he will only be able to sleep away from me when starting on full day basis at nursery as he will have no option really... :( Just wished he would develop a more independent daytime sleep pattern!

DD is 7 months and started nursery a few weeks ago. She co-sleeps with us, though will go down in her cot (right next to our bed) in the evening as long as one of us stays with her until she is asleep, but then is in our bed after her dream feed and won't go back into her cot. During the day she sleeps in her buggy (not necessarily when it is on the move). I put her in and give her a few toys and she will just fall asleep. Originally I had to put the hood up and a cover over the top and rock her to sleep, but she doesn't seem to need this anymore. She also sleeps on the sofa next to me (very carefully watched for rolling) or in her car seat when we are out. I was concerned about naps at nursery as she used to sleep on me a lot during the day too. It turned out that nursery is used to all of this and she seems to nap fine there. She often falls asleep on one of the staff and then is put in a cot.