0-6 months sleep?

[ANiceSliceOfCake]

I keep hearing about babies that 'go to bed at 7pm'. Do people mean their babies are up in their cots on their own?

I want to follow the NHS guidelines and keep baby (10 week old) in the same room as us till he's 6 months old. So at the moment he just sleeps on us while we watch TV till we go to bed, then we put him in his crib in our room ( he wakes for night feeds every 3 hours). So he technically won't be 'going to bed' as such till he's 6 months old.

Are we creating a problem for the future by doing this?

What do you do with your babies at night before they are 6 months old?

Before we put DD into her cot at 6 months she used to sleep in her Moses basket in the living room then we moved her through to our room when we went to bed.
We still tried to distinguish between night and day at that age though. After her bath and feed we would put her down in her basket (sometimes awake) and dim the lights & only watch the TV with the volume down low. As opposed to naps during the day when she would sleep on us/in her bouncy chair/pram or car seat if we were out and we made a conscious effort not to tiptoe round her so she got used to napping with background noise.
Worked really well for us. She got the hang of it really quickly and got into a good bedtime routine really quickly. She took to her cot really well when we moved her as well.

This is part of the problem, he's pretty much outgrown his Moses basket, he wasn't keen on it anyway. So now he sits on the sofa with us till he falls asleep and we all go upto bed.

DS has nearly outgrown the basket too, he'll go down in a travel cot in the living room instead soon. Doubles as a playpen so worth the £5 from eBay plus £7 for a new mattress for it.

Ah I see, sorry I didn't get that from your OP. I second the travel cot idea. You could put him down in a wee quiet corner in your living room. The only issue is that you'd have to lift him to take him through to his crib but I guess you could time that with a feed if he's getting up every 3 hours anyway.

In the early days sometimes I would just go and take DD with me to bed a bit earlier and read my book for a bit before going to sleep so DH could watch TV with the volume up at a reasonable level. I figured it was only for 6 months then I would get my evenings back!

My 14 week old stays downstairs with us. With ds we waited until 6 months and then started "putting him to bed" but it did get a bit silly with dp and I tip toeing around him and having the tv on really quietly so as not to wake him. When dd starts to properly settle (she still fusses and feeds all evening) in the evening I'll probably put her to bed.

My lo is 12 weeks old and I have just started putting him in his cot (co sleeper in my room) around 8 although it does take a good hour to settle him then putting the monitor on and going downstairs. I'm following the easy routine so trying to get him to realise it's night as was sleeping most of day and not much at night. He never liked his Moses and was just sleeping on us which was getting a problem at night - this way I get a little quiet time at night instead of trapped on sofa under a sleeping baby or having to tip toe around him.

Thanks everyone, the travel cot is a good idea!

Everyone does it so differently don't they!

If you're getting a travel cot for napping I would suggest buying a proper mattress for it. DD couldn't get comfortable on the mattress -padded board- that came with ours (delicate flower that she is ) which resulted in several sleepless nights with her squashed into bed with us while we were away over the summer. You can pick them up on Amazon for around £15-20.

Strike through fail!