Tips in transitioning baby from our room to his own?

[december2020]

DS is about to grow out of his next to me (6 months adjusted, 7 months old) and we should start transitioning him to his own room and cot.

We've got a really good bedtime routine in our bedroom (chill, story, music & feed, bed) and have managed to get quite a good quick night wake/feed routine well.

I'm anticipating this will all go out the window once we start the transition.

So please share all your tips and hints on how to best transition him to his bedroom without (hopefully) disrupting his routine too much.
At the moment we've got a camp bed set up next to the cot just in case.

Do you need to move him of all is going well?

Honestly you don't really need to transition them. At that age they've the memory of a goldfish. Just put them in the new room one night and continue as normal.

I wouldn't necessarily settle down in the camp bed at bedtime. I'd keep it on standby only.

Yes it changes things as they may object to you leaving the room, and the camp bed WILL be used. But start as you mean to go on at first and try to quietly leave the room once they're drowsy.

And oil the hinges on the door!!!

www.wwl.nhs.uk/media/.leaflets/5fdb7a8b972ed4.80107859.pdf

If he naps in the cot, you could start trying him in his own room for naps. Slightly gentler transition that doesn't involve as much risk of nighttime screaming!

Keep same routine, just do it in the new space. Don't assume it will go wrong as that thought alone will give you stress!

What if it went perfectly?

We moved DS into his own room at 9 months as we lived in a flat before that but he never really noticed the difference. In our new house his bedroom is also his playroom and he did play in his new room for about 2 weeks before that though which may have helped.

if you wish you can just treat it as if you swapped your old car for a new one. no going back; old room out, new room in.
at 7 months they can fall asleep anywhere, a new room shouldn't be a problem.

follow your usual routine, I wouldn't expect any issues

Some excellent tips!!
Answering a few questions:

He's outgrowing the next to me, so we're going to have to move him somewhere; and I think he may get a better sleep without us going in and out of the room (and any snoring).

Good plan with the camp bed being emergency only. We'll definitely do that.

The crappy thing is his routine at the moment for a chill, story and music is in our bed - so hopefully he'll take to it well being in his cot.

You're very right! I am just assuming it'll go horribly wrong and he may take to it really well. think I'm also putting it off a little as I've grown so accustomed to him sleeping next to me, he's growing up so fast now.

Put him down for naps in his cot in his room.

Change his nappy in his new room, and play in there. Just be in that room so he gets used to it.

I can remember this stage with DS1, I got myself really stressed out about it, completely unnecessarily, my friend ( who’s a midwife) advice was to wait until he was 7mths old so he would remember, pick a weekend when we didn’t have much on, honestly it was absolutely fine, I put him in his cot in his bedroom, he cried for a couple of minutes, then went to sleep, and that was that. He was in his own room, didn’t have any the problems I was imagining. Good luck OP.