Stopping co sleeping - any tips?

[Bertieboo1]

I have co slept with our ds for about 4 months - he is now 5 months old. It wasn't planned but has been great for getting some sleep and feeding (he is ebf). However my dh is sleeping in the spare room so he can get some sleep and he is not keen on sharing a bed while our ds is small.

We would like to get ds to sleep in his own bed from around 6 months but I know this is going to be v difficult as he is used to snuggles and milk on tap all night. His feeding at night is roughly every 3 hours still.

I think we have every 'bad' sleep habit at the moment - he is normally fed to sleep at night and sleeps in his pram in the day, so struggles to self settle. If he wakes up and he is not with one of us in bed or being held, he cannot get himself back to sleep, so it would be likely he would wake every hour or so in his cot at first.

Does anyone have any experience of the move from co sleeping to cot? Any advice would be great!

We are considering using a pupd and/or gradual withdrawal method for the change.

Hi, have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley? Lots of good advice in there on changing sleep habits/locations etc.

Personally I would start with one nap a day in his cot, probably the morning one when you are at your freshest and he is probably most conducive to change. Once he is sleeping in there regularly once a day he will be more receptive to doing it at other times and it will also be easier on you.

Other things you could try include putting the cot in your bedroom (if there's room!), putting him in the cot wide awake with lots of toys and staying with him and encouraging him to play there so he associates it as a nice place to be.

Personally I didn't have much success with PUPD - it is extremely hard, so make sure you have plenty of back up (and ear plugs might help too!)

I would expect to be sleeping in his room for a while if you want to do gradual withdrawal techniques so my other advice would be make sure you can get comfy there with a flop out mattress or air bed or something.

Finally, get DH to do some of the settling/withdrawal (and GPs as well if at all possible) so DS doesn't get completely reliant on you to settle him and refuse to allow anyone else!

HTH and good luck!