Your co-sleeping experiences.

[RedLemonade]

6 mo DD2 bunks with me. I didn't plan on it but she just seems to need lots of reassurance at night time and I've adopted the path of least resistance (and tear-free baby). DH is now in spare bed in DD1's room.

Baby is BF, wakes every two hours after 11ish, sometimes hourly coming closer to morning, sometimes like now I end up holding her in my arms and mumsnetting till DH takes over at 7. I had been starting her off each night in the cot and transferring in with me when she wakes after I go to bed.

We're all happy enough with the current set-up but I do ultimately want to get DD2 in her cot and DH back in with me!

We're moving house in 2 months so may tackle it then. I may be crazy but I'm thinking of putting the two girls in the same room for company.

I just wondered what others' experiences were- how long did you co-sleep for? Did your DC naturally "grow out" of it or did you have to actively end it? Did you ever regret co-sleeping or wish you'd nipped it in the bud?

I'd just love to know months down the line I'll look back fondly on co-sleeping and be glad I did it (note past tense!).

Thanks for your experiences!

Tbh while I'm not against cosleeping and have done so myself for the early weeks with both ds and dd, I began putting them in their next2me/ moses basket just as soon as they showed signs of readiness. I think babies begin to develop habits from 4/5 months therefore it's highly unlikely they'll just grow out of it after this time without some kind of sleep training. I would either tackle it well before you move or leave until a month or two after you've moved as the baby will have quite a lot going on to get used to so breaking the habit will be harder. I'm not sure I'd put a baby in a room with an older child, particularly if they're still having night time feeds.

I absolutely loved cosleeping with my newborns but as soon as they seemed more independent I was happy to have my bed, and my husband, back.

Good luck whatever you decide.

I'm a huge fan of co-sleeping. Never intended to but DD had other ideas! She's now 22 months and we're now co-sleeping with 5 week old DS!

As far as DD goes, she always refused to go in a cot. She screamed every time we tried and I'm not the type to let her cry so co-sleeping was our option. At 17 months we introduced a single bed in her room, BF to sleep and then I co-slept in her bed when she woke. Then about 18 months I still BF to sleep but DH would go in to resettle her once asleep. He only had to go in for a couple of nights before she started sleeping through! Then a couple of months later, DH started putting her to bed as well and that was the end of BF to sleep.

So I'd say it depends on your timescale but it's an awful lot easier when they're developmentally ready to sleep on their own. At 8 months you will still have to get up for night feeds. I would prefer to co-sleep than get up in the night but you might be ok with that.

We co slept with DD1 until she was a bit over two. At that stage we bought a bed and she was so excited that she went right in, no problems. I don't think it is true you have to put them in their own bed or sleep train them.

DD1 would probably have been ready earlier, but circumstances meant it was easier for it to go on for a few more months. Just do what works for you.

Thanks for the replies all.

I might just keep her in with me for a while after the move until she starts waking less for feeds. I'll have to start paying more attention to how often she really is waking for them!

I feel like we'll probably end up moving her directly to her own proper bed with side rails unless she starts lasting longer stretches in her cot on her own steam. If the former then I guess I'm looking at a longer period of co-sleeping till she can manage a toddler bed. Or has anyone gone with a floor bed?

I might leave her separate from her sister till she's sleeping more reliably in either case...

Hopefully she'll just start going longer stretches for that first spell in the cot ().