When to move from moses basket to cot

[Hayls]

I'm 24 weeks pg with my 1st and have what is probably a trivial (and obvious) question. We have 2 spare bedrooms, one of which wil be the baby's room. We've bought a cot and a moses basket but what I'm wondering now is where to put them! There's a double bed in the spare room atm but I don't know if I should put the cot up in there? I thought babe could sleep in the moses basket in our romm for the 1st while and then move into the cot (got monitors) but I've now heard that she could grow out of the basket really quickly and will need to go into the cot. I'm panicking because there isn't really enough space in our room for a cot and she'll be too young to sleep on her own!
What age should babies be before they can sleep in their own room? I'd like to keep her in with us for as long as we can. WE could (with a squash) fit the cot in the room- is this the advisable thing to do?
We don't need to keep the room as a spare room because we're having some extension/ conversion work done before the due date to gain another room for visitors (our families live far away) so that doesn't need to be taken into account. Should we just make it the nursery but have her sleeping in our room? And breath in whenever we enter?!
Hope this makes sense and someone has some advice. Sorry if it sounds really stupid but this is a whole new world to me and I don't think I can learn it all!

Hi Hayls

I think every baby differs and how long they stay in their moses baskets/cribs for - it depends entirely on how big they are.

My DS (now 2.5yrs) was a real little porker - and had outgrown his crib by the time he was 8 week and then went straight into a cotbed. He hated the restriction of the crib and slept much better once in the cotbed.

He slept in our room for the first two weeks but we found that this was so disruptive i.e. both of us would wake when he wanted feeding. He was also such a noisy little thing, snorting, farting and snuffling the night away. After two weeks of keeping each other awake he went into his own room and slept so much better there. We never had any problems and he slept through the night from 11 weeks old.

We recently went on holiday where we had to share a room and it was a real pain - we kept waking each other up and our sleep was really disturbed - as soon as we got home though it all went back to normal.

I think it is always good to have a room ready for the baby - even if it is only for daytime naps, nappy changing etc. You'll be amazed by how much stuff you can accumulate in a VERY short space of time and being able to put it all away in one place is a godsend.

HTH

was going to say that everyone will give you a different answer and there is obviously no 'right' answer. My ds was big too (9lb 13oz) so moved out of moses basket (in our room)at 6 weeks. We put him into the cot (also in our room) until he was about 3 months. I think you'll just have to see what happens on that front. As dejags suggests thoug - worth getting room ready so when you do decide to move baby it's already sorted (you won't have time/inclination to do it once he/shes arrived)

jsut realised that doesn't make sense
what I meant was ds was in our room in moses basket untl 6 wks then in cost in our room until 3 months when we moved him to his own room.

Hi Hayls, You may not get a lot of responses since I've noticed that there are not as many Mumsnetters on-line on weekends as during the week. Also, I think you'll find that- especially with your first - you may do things differently than everyone else - just doing what seems to work for you and your baby. We had a cot set up in our room, but it seemed that DD cried whenever we put her in it. I swore that I wouldn't sleep in the same bed with our DD when she was born because of fear of cot death, etc, but we ended up sleeping with her for at least the first 4 months and for brief periods after that. I completely agree with dejags - you will likely want to set up your your nursery before she is born. You'll want the option of putting her in her cot in another room, even if it turns out that you don't use it much in the beginning. I believe that the rule on the moses basket is that it's okay until your baby can roll. So it depends on your baby. HTH. Good luck!

our ds has been in his own room - we have a tiny house + a monitor so he's not exactly abandoned - from day one and I'm convinced he's a better sleeper for it. It just seemed right for us - our bed's really not very big plus dh smokes a little and snores too! (doesnt actualy smoke in bed though!)Sometimes ds comes in with us after first feed of the day for a family snuggle but he always seems to settle better in his own bed. He started in a moses basket then I moved basket into cot bed (to ease transition) at 12 weeks. I took moses out about a week later - I made buffers/bolsters from big rolled up towels so he didnt feel lost in his huge cot and to stop him banging against anything - i keep touching wood and expecting things to change every day but so far we havent had any problems.

I could be wrong, as the 1st year's a bit of a blur, but I think ds stayed in a basket in our room for 5 months. I think the advice is it's OK until they can sit up. But it's certainly true all babies are different.

hi hayls. We had ds in a moses basket in our room for the first 3 months and then in a cot for the next three and then WE moved out and into what had until then been the spare room and made it our bedroom. We did it that way (not planned or anything really) because the cot didn't fit through the door and we couldn't be bothered to take it all apart and reassemble it and also it would be less of a change for ds to start sleeping on his own (in fact I don't think he noticed for a second)
Have you checked out the advice about preventing cot death? I have vague memories of it suggesting the first 6 months sleeping in the same room as the parents was recommended but couldn't swear to it.

hayls, many babies seem to need to move out of moses baskets before they actually grow out of them ifswim - they can find them a little restrictive. mine is about to abandon his basket (he only sleeps in it at night, does his naps in his cot) at 4.5 weeks. he's also about to go into his own room because he is a snorer! if he was still in his basket I'd put him in his own room with the basket IN the cot so it all looks and smells familiar when he moves to his cot properly (also useful for protecting them from older siblings, but you don't have that problem...)agree that you should have a nursery set up whatever as you don't really know what you'll want to do until he/she gets there.

I'm of the camp that thinks that everyone sleeps better if they are in their own room from fairly early on, but you will just do what comes naturally to you and that will be the right thing.

Thanks very muc for all your advice Ill get the room ready and see how things work out!

Hayls - yet another answer...

DS (9'11' and very, very long) went into his cot in our room when he was three days old. Before that he was in a carrycot that came with his three wheeler.

He was perfectly happy in his cot even if he looked rather little (possibly the only time!).

We moved his cot into his own room when he was 5 months.

Cot death advice is to keep them in your bedroom until they are 6 months. Something to do with everyone synchronising their breathing. It was difficult to go against this advice but he was a big boy and we were starting to disturb him when we went to bed.

It was soooo nice to be able to put the light on and read when he was on his own!

As others have said, every baby is different and everyone's views are different. DD was very long, and didn't spend long in her moses basket and transferred into her cot quite happily at about 3 months. She also spent only one night with us in our room. We had spent 4 nights together when I was in hospital, but dh couldn't stand how noisy she was when she was sleeping and didn't sleep at all himself so the next night she was in her own room.