Transition to cot advice?

[LucyCC]

Hello, just wondering if anyone has any advice about transitioning an 8 month old from bed-sharing to sleeping in a cotbed with as little crying or distress as possible?

We’ve co-slept for 2 months since she grew out of her crib and would not take to the small cot we purchased as an intermediate step. After 90 mins of crying while trying to pop her back to sleep in the cot on the 5th attempt one morning at 3am, she came in with us and has been there since.

She happily falls asleep on one side of the bed with one of us sitting on the other side, mainly to make sure she is safe, and isn’t fed to sleep. She has a routine including books, a little music/light fox and a comforter (to which she’s utterly indifferent).

The cotbed will be next to me at the side of the bed so she’s still in the same room and can see me. I’m prepared for the long haul in terms of the transition but hoped there may be some tips or tricks I could start with, fingers crossed! Thanks!

Have you got one side removed from the cotbed? Make it a sidecar cot.

Second the advice of a sidecar cot. Same idea as bedsharing, but she's in her own sleep space. And from there you can work to put the side back on and move her into her own room (if you want).

Although we have our cot sidecarred and the only thing it holds at night is my phone and water bottle, not the baby

Thanks for the advice! I did consider the sidecar cot idea however the mattress levels in the cot don’t match up to our mattress by quite a few cms so I’m not sure if that would be a suffocation hazard at 8 months? She’s pretty mobile as she’s fully crawling so has a decent amount of arm, neck & leg strength however I know the advice around next to me cribs is very much that they have to be on a level.

I don't think it makes any difference when you have a fully mobile baby.

I think unless you transition from cosleeping to cot via a sidecar cot, then any alternate is going to result in a lot of distress and crying. So it's a case of pick your priority - no distress with a sidecar cot, or no sidecar cot but lots of distress.

FATEdestiny, fabulous, thank you! I’ll give that a go and see if I can transition her to her own space in a sidecar cot first before stealthily popping the side on when we can. I’m not overtly against co-sleeping tbh but it’s a bit limiting at bedtime/nap time as one of us has to sit with her while she sleeps in case she rolls dramatically off the bed so I’d like to get her in some form of containment unit.

A pool noodle under the bottom sheet of her cot forms enough of a ridge to wake her up rather than roll over it. This also works at the edge of your bed when cosleeping. It stops accidentally rolling off the bed.

On from that - actively teach her to get off the bed safely. You can teach this right from when crawling. Teach her yo crawl backwards to the edge of the bed, then lower her legs off the side, then dangle and drop, feet first. Scatter a few cushions or old duvets around the bed, just in case.