When to move good sleeper to own room

[FTMbg]

Baby is 6 months and sleeping through from 8-9pm to 5-6am in her cot in our room. (Apologies we know we are very lucky here, if it's any consolation she was a horrific sleeper for the first few months). I bf her to sleep in a chair in her room, then transfer her into cot in ours, as she only sleeps from feeding or pushchair. We haven't bought a monitor as yet, I just go to bed when she does.

We are all happy, we like being able to see she is ok in the night and being there when she wakes up. I don't want her to have to start the day crying just to let us know she's awake! Her room is on the brighter, louder side of the house so she may wake more if we move her in there. I'm wondering how long we can enjoy this set-up before she has to move. Once she can climb she will certainly have to go as we couldn't fit a toddler bed in our room, the cot is a squeeze. But does it make more sense to make the move while she's still not mobile at night? She can roll back to front but hasn't in her sleeping bag as yet. Will it be better to move her soon and deal with her crying when she wakes, rather than wait til she needs the bed and have her getting out of bed to find us? Or should I just carry on enjoying things as they are for as long as possible? Maybe safer to have her with us longer in case she rolls onto her face as she doesn't roll back in daytime and needs rescuing! Advice and experiences would be much appreciated, thank you.

Think it's your choice primarily. My LO 6 months and I been thinking about moving. Some people do it at younger then 6 months. Some 8 months. One of my friends was over a year. Think it's what you feel comfortable with.

I would suggest a blackout blind in LO room though. To help them with all the brightness.

Give it a try? If it doesn't work you can always change back

If there is nothing that is making you move to their own room, I would routinely keep baby in with parents until at least 12 months.

I'd say that by aged 2, when baby is verbal and emotionally/intellectually developing, you'll then struggle to make the move because child will have more self awareness and be strong willed enough to refuse simply because your room is nicer.

I'd say that aged 12-18 months, you can move from cot in your room to cot in own room with minimal disruption to sleep (assuming blackout blinds, white noise to block out background noise, havent been cosleeping and sleeping through).

18-24 months it's still reasonable and entirely possible to move with minimal disruption, but will depend on how developed your toddler is by then.

Cot climing starts around 12 months. But entirely possible (and recommended) to stop such unwelcome behaviour and this isn't a reason to swap from a cot to a bed. I'd suggest a bed after 3rd birthday.

Oh thank you both, that's nice to know we can enjoy a bit longer and really useful to start to get a picture of the timeline.
I'm curious though how you stop them climbing out of the cot @FATEdestiny ?

I'm curious though how you stop them climbing out of the cot

Cot climbing isn't really a sleep issue, its a behaviour issue. So you deal with it like you would any other unwelcome behaviour (think of things like refusing to have seatbelt done in car, running into the road when walking etc etc) - with firm boundaries and repeated non-tolerance of anything that pushes your boundaries.

So my advice for a client who'd baby is cot climbing is:

• Set very simple and clear expectations (these are your boundaries). For example: at sleep time you will lie down. Note that the expectation is not that at sleep time you will go to sleep - body autonomy factors make that an impossible expectation.

• Repeatedly assert your expectations over and over again. So repeatedly resettle baby back to lying down at any suggestion of even sitting up, not giving any chance to even stand.

• Be totally consistent and never accept anything other than lying down (this is where the "firm" bit of firm boundaries comes in). So this means that until your boundaries are accepted, you're stood close enough to respond instantly.

If things are working for you then I wouldn't change anything for now.

When you're ready you could start trying to put her down in her own room for nap times and then graduate to bedtime. Might be a case of feeding to sleep first and then gradually weaning off as time goes on.

If you're happy with the status quo though I wouldn't mess with anything. At least you're getting plenty of sleep!

Thanks @FATEdestiny that's interesting. I'd worry about her trying to climb out in the morning, she doesn't try at the moment though and probably wouldn't get too far in a sleeping bag.

@lobsteroll that's it I'm reluctant to change anything at the moment as we're very lucky with how the nights tend to go. That sounds a very sensible idea to get the naps working there first. At the moment she wakes if I try to transfer her in the day so naps either on me or in the pushchair but I will hold that aim in mind of trying to start with the naps first in her room. Thank you.