Calling all cosleepers... How do you manage the sleeping in the evening?

[Alwaysroomforpudding]

I've been cosleeping with my 2 month old DS (DC2) since birth and love it. I've no desire to change things BUT I would love to be able to have my evenings back - at the moment he won't settle in his Moses basket or cot so I am ending up with him dozing on my lap or in the sling. I think the problem is that he's now not happy sleeping without me and I don't know how to fix this - any ideas?? He will nap in the pushchair or sling when we are out and that suits me fine, it's just the evenings that are the problem! I've tried putting him in the cot and patting etc. but it hasn't worked so far. Is there anything else I can try or will it just fix itself?

Mine just got gradually better at going to bed on his own. Can't remember when it started exactly but definitely after 3 months. Until then, I carried him until I went to bed.

I did try patting etc but it was a total failure and tbh, I'd rather watch telly with a snoozing baby on my lap than be leaning over the bed doing shush-pat for an hour!

Yes, that's exactly it - I really can't be bothered to spend ages stuck in the bedroom missing out on an evening relaxing, especially when I've been dealing with DD all day too. I know I'm a bad lazy parent!

Hi, just wanted to add to the reassurance that it will probably change on its own. I have co-slept with DS since he was born (he's now 11 months) and for the first 2-3 months we couldn't really leave him in the evening. I would feed him to sleep and then slowly edge away from him and try to get away but it didn't usually work although he would put up with being cuddled by DH. After 2-3 months (can't remember exactly) it started working some of the time and slowly got better and better so that now (certainly since 4 months or so) I can always leave him about 15 mins after he's gone to sleep - sometimes I need to go back after 45 mins or so but he usually settles then pretty quickly. So I have most of the evening free.

I think lazy parenting is the way forward personally, having tried so hard to be 'good' (for which read getting child independent from as young as possible!) with DD (now 5) and just getting really stressed because all she wanted was to be with me. With DS I have gone with the flow much more and have enjoyed my time with him so much more - he's also a very happy baby, so we all win ..

When DD was that age, we just let her fall asleep downstairs with us and then took her up. Once I was back at work I used it as an excuse for an early night, then when she was about a year old we started putting her to bed by herself, in our bed and one of us would stay with us for 20 minutes while she dropped off. When she was 18 months old she started taking herself off to bed when she was tired - we just tried to always make bedtime pleasant and stress free so that she would want to go to bed when she was tired, and it seems to have worked.