Moving six month old into own room

[onesteptotheleftofme]

Advice please.
Currently his cot is in the spare room with the single bed. I will move his cot into his nursery on the weekend.
He is breastfed with a bottle at 7pm.

Last night he went down just after 7, i snuck into bed with my partner (firzt time we'd left the boy in his own room). He woke at 2.30 and 3.45 for a feed. I went back to bed at 5.

Tonight he wAnted a bf at 8, 10 and 11. Then we co-slept and he has fed at 12.30, 1.30, 4.30 and here i am at 5.

His night feeds are so erratic. How do i change this so we both get more sleep and when he's in his nurseey
do i just need to accept that i'll be up longer to feed him to sleep every night? How will ;i manage?! I've spoiled myself by co-sleeping, but it ruins my back and hips so i really want to stop.

He only had two hours nap today, but was up for no longer than 2 hours at a time. We got up at 8.45, not 7.15. He didn't feed very well today as we were out and he got distracted.
Help. How do i repeatedly get 7 hour syreyches out of him?

IT's amazing ho2 crazy you go at 5am. Last night he was overtired. So today i am trying to make him nap asmuch as possible. Extending naps past 4 mins is difficult unless i feed lying down.
So advice or words of support are still welcome!

Its a personal choice and often contested on the sleep board, but I see no point in moving baby into his own room until he is reliably sleeping through.

Others believe that moving baby into own room and then sleep training is The Answer.

I believe that I don't have the energy to keep tooing and froing to another room in the night so will keep the cot in my room until baby has learnt to reliably sleep through.

I don't see 6 months as any kind of magic 'now is the right time' figure, it is just to do with SIDS recommendations as a not before age - not that baby should move into own room at 6 months.

I would look for ways to help your baby learn to settle to sleep independently in his cot and be settled to sleep without being fed or needing to be picked up - this is the first step to independent sleeping, which then leads to sleeping through.

Also, as you mention, ensuring baby isn't over-tired through the daytime helps.

Personally I wouldn't bother putting the baby in their own room until they were sleeping through. My 7 month old is still in with us.

I would leave them also

However I would also stop all the feeding overnights. At 6 months I would dream feed them at 11pm, then no milk feeds until after 6am. Offer water if you honk they genuinely are thirsty. But otherwise they have 6am-11pm so 17 hrs a day to eat and drink as much as they like.

Think not honk!

"Offer water if you honk..."

I like that better!

Yes I agree stopping milk between two fixed times is the way to go - it might be a tough handful of nights but eventually baby's appetite re-calibrates to eating during the day and they are no longer hungry at night. At 6 months they are well capable of going 8-10 hours with no milk overnight.

Thanks guys.
The problem wi,h us sharing a room is we waje each other up all night. He can do 7/8 hour stretches.
I don't feel lile i can offer just water at night as he's a bad feede in the day (breas,fed).
Can i start the pantley pull off method now?
How do i get him to take longee naps in the day and in the cot? Do i have to accept there will be some cty;ng imvolved?

But if you feed less at night he will feed better in the day. Mine breastfed and this worked. No overnight feeds from 4 months, unlimited in the day

Have you started weaning him? Will he take a dummy? Is there space for the cot into your room/just outside until he's sleeping a bit better?

Artandco - good point. I can only get him to sleep by bf to sleep though. But i think the night co sleeping will have to stop as he feeds constantly while co sleeping.
Teapot - weaning started a week ago. He wont take a dummy. No room for the cot in or near our room.

Co sleeping can still happen. Wear a done up shirt and jumper for a week ( good whilst it's cold). Then he can't get access.

At bedtime feed in living room. Then do bedtime unrelated to milk. So pjs, story, in bed, lullaby and stroke face and back to sleep

art - that routine might be worth trying, thank you for suggesting it.

re not bf at night, all the bf 'experts' tell me i need to feed at night (if the baby is hungry) as that's the best time for my supply. i'll add that his latch isn't great so it takes him quite a long time to feed. otoh, since we started weaning he is loving drinking water.

Feed to sleep as usual, put him in his cot and when he wakes take a while to respond. Increase the length of time it takes to get to him for a night feed until he stops bothering to wake up as it's not worth the effort. Nothing too distressing though just gently letting him realise night and day are different