Co- sleeping - when/how to stop?

[PopcornAndWine]

Hi all. DD is 14 weeks, breastfed. She will (usually) sleep for a good stretch at the start of the night in her cot but nearly always ends up in the bed with me at some point. We follow lullaby trust guidelines re safe bed sharing. At the moment I enjoy it and we definitely both sleep better when she's in the bed so not planning to stop any time soon. But don't want to do it indefinitely either - a friend of a friend apparently has a 7 year old who will still only sleep in the parents bed!

So my question is for those who co-slept: when did you stop and how did you stop?

No advice but following this as currently trying to get my 1 year old to sleep in his own bed all night!

I stopped when my dc we're confident on their feet and could get on and off the sofa safely as they hated the cot so I got a Single bed and put 2 bed guards side by side leaving a small gap at the bottom so they could get in and out. This also helped with settling them in their own bed as I use to lie on it with them till they were asleep then just crept out, I also did the same if they woke in the night. Only took a couple of weeks to settle them in their own beds.

Mine went straight into a toddler bed between 1.5-2 years old.

Interesting thanks so both of you your DCs went straight from co sleeping to their own toddler beds.

Yep, best thing I ever did doing it the way I did it. I co slept for medical reasons but once they were all sorted and like I said in my response I got straight on to getting them in their own beds. I did it that way with both my dc.

Mine went in their own room from 11 weeks.

Yep, people went on about "a rod for your own back" but it wasn't that at all, I never had to get out bed! Bliss. Then when they went into their own beds they were so excited by their special bed with lovely bed covers, they couldn't wait to get in! It was fairly easy tbh. They would sometimes come into my bed at about 4am for a few weeks or so while adjusting but apart from that fairly plain sailing all 3 times. I'll be doing the same with number 4.

Very reassuring, will definitely carry on doing it the way I am for now

Never did a cot. We got dd (4) bunk beds as she was excited about them, and when ds (2) saw them he insisted on joining her.
So we went from 4 in our bed to two in one night.

Curious for those that bed-shared full time from the outset - how were your DCs with naps? As mine is awful at the min, will only really nap in sling or again co-sleeping with me. Did yours ever nap anywhere apart from the bed?

Mine slept on me until about 6 months or the bouncer after that it was only in their pram

Bed shared on floor bed in DS room then gradually I've gone when he's fallen asleep and once we night weaned around 21 mo he's slept much longer stretches. I go through to comfort if needed and often it's me being too tired to wake properly and i lie down still (DS is 2.4) but last night/ this morning, it was 5 am before that happened and it was only as he was telling me that he had had enough sleeping (no thanks mate!)

He was a crap crap napper in a lot of ways. Only on me until about 9 mo then pushchair/ chair/ maybe bed if DH was sorting it. But usually took nearly as long for him to go down as he slept. I am hugely relieved that naps are no longer a feature of my day!

Naps are mostly on me or in the bouncer. I only had one who would nap without rocking, cuddles or boob, but then I didn't try that hard tbh as I love sleepy cuddles anyway!

@ISmellBabies I love sleepy cuddles too! Usually have a co-sleep nap mid afternoon, I really like it so haven't been too motivated to try and get her to nap on the cot so far - previous efforts at that have been a dismal failure anyway.