how can i get my 11 month old to sleep in her cot, not my bed! all experience& advice needed

[sherazade]

I'm breastfeeding dd2 who is 11 mo, and still breastfeeds at night atleast 3 times, and is co sleeping. dh sleeps in the spare room because dd2 can often be found standing , crawling, kicking me in the head etc in the small hours which isn't fun and he has to leave for uni at 7am. I don't want to do co sleeping anymore: i want my bed back and I want to share it with dh (who i dont blame for leaving the room one bit, she was actually waking even more frequently with him in the bed, everytime he turned, pulled the blanket she'd shriek and i was exhausted. i on the other hand don't move a muscle mid sleep).

the lack of decent sleep is actually depressing, and i feel i cannot sleep comfortable with her next to me, i have to be still all night or she wakes & cries and it isnt fun.

I want to move her into a cot but she has never slept in one.

how do i manage the night feeds with minimal disturbance? cosleeping and breastfeeding IS convenient but i know i can't have my cake and eat it so to speak.
any other tips or just stories of how you transitioned a similar aged baby would be great.

You may find that when you put her in a cot she might drop the night feeds after a while as she won't be disturbed so much by your movements and if she doesn't wake she won't realise she's missing the feeds.

Good luck

What about putting her straight into a bed? I moved my DD onto her own matress(a big one) on the floor at about 12 months. That way you can join her if she wakes and if you want, creep away when she's back to sleep.

I managed to night wean my DD when cosleeping with just offering cuddles first, water, then bf if she wouldn't settle but she always did. What ever you do, make sure you're consistent.

we;ve got a similar prob sheherazade. ds nearly 10 months and really used to co sleeping now. however, i have always put him in cot for daytime naps, and until he was 6 monts he never slept in with us, so he is at least used to sleeping in his cot. currently he comes in with us from around 10pm.

my plan is to sloooowly get him back to sleep in his cot, but i may either
a) move cot into our room
b) sleep on floor next to his cot for a week or so to get him used to being in cot at night and to make night feeds easier for me
c) put all our mattresses on the floor in our room so he can at least sleep on his own mattress

whichever option we decide, you can bet i will take at least a week to do each step so it's gentle on him. my own version of the NCSS book i guess.

however in our case, i actually love co sleeping & if i had my way, we'd have a family bed in the main room and a shag palace in the spare room !!!