Moving 11mo from cosleeping into cot

[babybrain77]

Please help - any ideas/suggestions gratefully received!

DS will soon be 1 and we have been cosleeping since he was 5/6 months. He has always been a bad sleeper - he was an 11lb baby and fed every 1-2 hours for the first couple of months. Things have gradually gotten better since then, and we did have a few weeks where he was pretty consistently sleeping 7-4/5 which felt like a dream, but on average we are still up 2-3 times in the night. About a month ago, I tried getting him back into his cot by moving him once he'd fallen asleep. He would usually stay asleep a few hours then wake up very distressed.

I'd really like to get DS back into his cot - I'm worried that the older he gets, the harder it will be, and that I am somehow preventing him from learning the important skill of sleeping by himself. I'd also like to share the bed with DH again.

A few relevant points- I've tried putting him in the cot after his night time bottle (still awake) but he stands up and screams until I take him out again. I have tried settling him back down again when he wakes from his cot, but again he gets extremely distressed. I'm not willing to do any form of controlled crying. He sleeps well in the day - he has a morning nap about 50% of the time which lasts 20-30mins max, between 9 and 10. He has a 1.5-2hr lunchtime nap between 11.30 and 2.30 (depending on whether he's had a morning nap) and I never let him sleep past 3. He eats 3 good meals a day and still has 3-4 bottles of milk. He is slowly dropping the milk and is following his growth line so I'm not too worried that this is more than normal.

Does anyone have any tips for how to go about getting DS back into his cot in a gentle manner?

Hi I've not got experience putting a bedsharer to cot however mine bedshared with me from about 8weeks old until just over a year.

In the last couple of months of it we bedshared in his new bed in his room. I made him a floor bed, full size single.

Once we had about a month of sleeping in there together I just would lie with him till he went to sleep and then sneak out.

I had already been doing that to hang out with hubby downstairs but had previously returned to share with baby.

From about a year and 2 months we got to a point where I could leave the room without him being fully asleep.

Would moving to a floor bed be an option?

@wifeofbikerviking thank you for replying. It hadn't even occurred to me that we could skip the cot completely! Did your DS get out of his bed in the night? This is one of my other concerns with DS now - he's so mobile and although we have bed bumpers, I'm really nervous that one day he'll launch himself over the top of them!

I think because hes always been able to get out, its not been overly interesting to him that he can.
As its a floorbed theres not far to fall tho iv put a barrier anyway and a thick ring on the floor.

Hes occasionally got out as hes older if hes been scared or having a little moment. We just come and cuddle him tell him to stay in bed and he tends to just settle

On the plus side as he can get out in the morning he happily plays with his toys when its light and I can take my time getting up. Have safety proofed his bedroom and secured his drawers to the wall in case he climbs them.

*rug on the floor

I'm with wifeofbikerviking. I did do it at about 12 months. Moved from bed sharing in our room to cot/bedsharing in the new room and then out.

We did it slightly differently - moved from co-sleeping (had done it from birth) to cot in our room at about 9 months. We did pick up put down and it took maybe a week or two (felt longer!). Moved the cot into his own room at 11 months and he wasn’t bothered at all - didn’t seem to notice the difference. I breastfed him til 13 months.