How do you manage baby sleeping in same room as you when they go to bed earlier than you?

[Chance51]

Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but our 2.5 month old is going to sleep at about 8 pm, and sleeping reasonably well in the night. How should I be managing to have them sleep in the same room as me until they are 6 months old if they go to bed so early!?

I have tried doing bedtime routine and then bringing baby to sleep in living room rather than their cot in the evening after doing the bedtime routine but this results in a very short nap followed by a grumpy overtired baby.

If I go to bed at the same time as them I have to just lie in bed as any light or sound tends to wake DS.

I feel like I'm missing something obvious - or do I just need to be in bed in the bedroom with DS from 8 pm to 6 am until they are 6 months old!?

I moved the cot away from the bed and to be honest I was usually asleep by 8:30....
DS was usually ok if I sat in the room and watched something on the iPad though. I miss those days when I could get some enforced rest!

Baby monitor

I just went to bed when she did. But she's a terrible sleeper and birth knocked me for six plus I'm spectacularly lazy so I needed the sleep. Even now at 7 months, stating up til 9pm feels like a wild party night.

Just get into bed at 8pm and MN on the phone :)

Have you got an ipad? Can u watch something with 1 headphone?

I went up to bed with her until about 4 months. I just read, watched TV at a lowish volume, browsed on my phone, etc for a couple of hours. From about 4.5 months, her bedtime crept forward to 7pm and I started putting her down and coming downstairs again for a few hours before going back up to to the bedroom.

So your baby goes to sleep 8pm. You turn the baby monitor on and go to your living room till what ever time you feel you need to go to bed and then go to bed...dont see whats the issue?

We sat downstairs in the dark with the TV on mute and subtitles on. DD slept in her Moses basket behind the sofa, which blocked out most of the light from the TV. Not brilliant, but this stage doesn't last for very long in the grand scheme of things.

@JustMe9

dont see whats the issue?

It goes against safe sleep guidance. Many people don't feel comfortable risking it.

You turn the baby monitor on and go to your living room till what ever time you feel you need to go to bed and then go to bed...dont see whats the issue?

SIDs advice is usually interpreted to mean you should be in the same room as your baby for all sleeps for the first six months. I happen to think that's not overly practical and we didn't do it ourselves, but at 2.5 months I would still be doing so.

We just didn't do a bedtime routine until 6 months. Ours tended to breastfeed on and off and we'd just cuddle while they dozed or put them in Moses basket downstairs.

We did do our best to follow the SIDS guidelines as I was really anxious and had a lot of obsessive thoughts about SIDS and the babies dying in general. I personally would do your own research on SIDS and the stats etc and make an informed choice that way as on these threads you'll get the extremes (some like me who didn't have the baby leave their sides and the others who the babies sleep in their own room from very early).

Baby monitor. Which doesn’t reduced the risk of SIDS at all. Missing the point entirely.

@Chance51 a combination of mosses basket & early nights (taking turns or together) until about 8 months, then going in & out of the room frequently until they moved into their own rooms as toddlers (variously 18-24 months). Disturbing their sleep a bit is kind if the point if it, so never worried about that.

I just put her in her cot and took a baby monitor down stairs. Then went to bed at my normal time, did it when staying with family too and sharing a room. No biggie. You can easily sneak in and into bed without waking them.

We had baby downstairs in his Moses basket with us until I was ready for bed. Tv on low and low level lighting and all was fine.

Laptop earphones watch tv in bed.

You aren't missing something - the advice is to be with them at all times when asleep but when ours started going to bed at "bedtime", at maybe 8 weeks, we used a baby monitor and went downstairs. You make your own choices.

Baby is meant to sleep in same room as you until 6 months old.

He was in his carrycot downstairs until about 5 months, then we were disturbing him and I decided I felt ok with him being upstairs in his own with the monitor on. Though I often went to bed at the same time as him, I was exhausted!

My daughter is 10 weeks and today she napped upstairs with the video monitor on whilst I played with my 3yr old and popped up and down stairs. He needed it, she really needed the sleep but I won’t make a habit of it, she is currently asleep next to me whilst I watch tv in bed. It’s hard with my other children to be fully next to her in every nap but we do our best

As a pp said - baby monitor. I used one with a camera. DS just stopped being able to sleep downstairs in the evening with noise form talking/tv when he was about 3 months and the same with naps in the day from about 4 or 5 months. The advice is to keep them in the same room - I think advice and guidelines should be considered carefully, but keeping a baby in the same room as you as for all sleeping until they are a very active and alert 6 month old is just completely impractical and I feel like the person who came up with it clearly didn’t have a baby themselves