If you were co-sleeping at 6m+, how did it end?

[Dresswithpockets]

My ds is 9 months and since he was about 6 months we have been co-sleeping, initially the odd night in our bed, then more consistently for part of every night (after he moved into his own room), and now I basically go to bed at his first wake (he wakes every 1-3hrs most nights) in his room which also has a bed in and he sleeps in with just me. It has been the way to maximise the most sleep for us all as a family in the short term but I the more mobile he is, the less comfortable I feel and I don't sleep that well with him.

How/when did co-sleeping stop for you if you were still doing it 6m+?

Fwiw, he is breastfed. He isn't fed to sleep at the start of the night but does have a shh/pat etc after bedtime story. He is often fed back to sleep. We tried sleep training once and I couldn't hack it at the time but also think the timing wasn't right - he was just on the cusp of crawling and loads of other development stuff and there was just too much going on and more upset for him being left than I could stomach, so we stopped on the first night. He has never really slept longer than 3hr stretches and was in a next to me before he got too big and was moved into cot in different room.

I had the same set up where dd would go down in her cot and I would co-sleep from the first wake up in a double bed in her room, usually between 9pm and 11pm and she also woke several times a night. From about 18 months her first wake up got later and later until she started sleeping through the night at about 20 months. We are actually just about to dismantle the extra bed now she is 2.5 as we haven't needed it. But I do remember those long co-sleeping months where there just didn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel and I couldn't believe she would ever sleep through and honestly it was just like some flicked a switch and it happened. Hope you get better sleep soon.

Same!

I enjoyed it up to 6 months but then started to wish for a bit more space! I found gradually stopping bfeeding helped as they tended to settle better with my DH or a bottle feed rather than mummy!

I'm cosleeping with my 6.5 month old and she will only feed to sleep. If I try sneak away and go downstairs she'll wake up and cry. We've started in the last week or so with my partner next to her and it's hit or miss whether she'll stay asleep when I creep away. Is this normal? How did other cosleeping mamas have any kind of time to themselves? As I'm typing this I've got a half made cup of tea downstairs because she woke up and cried as I was making it 😵 I've got a night out planned in August and I'm seriously worried she won't fall asleep without me or if dp can manage to rock her off to sleep then she'll wake up crying for me to feed her..

This is why I moved my son in his own room at 11 weeks. He's breastfed so I don't think that's always the case why they wake loads. We just slept so much better. But each to their own 😊 no judgement here.

Plus got him used to his cot well before then for his naps

Basically this. 7 and 9 and still in our bed. A lot 😂

Four children here who all were cosleeping at 6 months. The eldest didn’t move into his own bed until 4 but all the others we transitioned into a cot at around 15 months

My dd is 11 and only last week she said to me -you don't need to sleep with me anymore mummy "

So often you read about adults that don't sleep well without their DP/DH/DW. Only modern society has forced children into their own rooms.

We played musical beds a lot! Three children, all co slept but then we'd pop them back to bed/get into their bed etc. Pot luck as to who would be in which bed come morning. We'd all pile back into the big bed in the mornings. It was quite relaxed and it worked for us. I didn't get a night where there wasn't a wake up for several years, but never really had hours (or even many minutes) awake. Long enough to pop someone back in their cot, or to decide two adults and several small children was a bit of a squeeze and just head off to their bed.

My DD co-slept until about 3 years old, from around that age she would fall asleep in her bed but generally gravitate back to our bed. From about age 5 onwards she primarily stayed in her own bed. We only really get her back in our bed now, occasionally have a mummy and DD sleepover in my bed and when she is poorly. Of course it's nice to reclaim my space but I also miss those times.

I think everyone was staying in their own bed by about 6, unless nasty dream meant they needed a cuddle

I also agree with @Ducksurprise I find it odd we impose expectations of sleeping alone on young children that we often struggle to manage ourselves. We are social creatures and want/need connection.

He's 17 and sleeps on his own bed. Still wakes up at silly o clock, mind.

Eldest co slept until 5 and now the youngest is still in with me age 2. I don't get more sleep as she wakes about 3 times a night but at least I don't have to get out of bed and see to her.

I know it will end and look forward to sleeping on my own again one day! Not with husband though he snores 😅

We co slept until 12 months. Then he got a mattress on the floor and was out to bed in that, though I spent a lot of nights in there too! This gradually reduced. By 2.5 when he was fully weaned he started sleeping all the way through on his own. It is incredibly rare he gets into my bed now, a few times a year maybe.

Ds1 just moved out of my bed at almost 11! And ds8 still wanting to sleep with me. It’s been challenging at times, really lovely at others and in retrospect has gone very very quickly. Single parent though, for the last four years, so I haven’t had to worry about sharing the bed with anyone else.

I determinedly moved ds into his own room at 6 months... He had other plans and we would up in The Nest (a futon on his bedroom floor) until he was close to 1. He breastfed til 4, but I managed to stop night feeds ages 2.

Like others, no regrets really, aside from trying to avoid The Nest for far too long and spending some hideous nights on a bean bag chair. Less said about that the better.

He is now 7 and sleeps 11.5 hours in his own bed every night, and has done so for years. He spends every waking minute playing out in his den with his friends, and is really sociable and not clingy or overly attached to me.

I'm a fan of going with it if it's working, giving babies and little children all the comfort they need, and going with thw flow. I 100% get the sleep deprivation and wanting your own space though, and you've got to do what works for you.

Co-slept with youngest DC from very early as she just wanted to feed all the time and I wasn't getting any sleep. From pretty early in I put her in her crib to sleep then brought her in with me until 1st feed. When she was about a year we moved into a house that needed a lot of work so she stayed with a cot in my room. She didn't wake for feeds any more but I would bring her in bed when she woke up as I didn't want her waking my elder DC with crying. We just kind of continued like that when she went into her own room. She would wake at some point every night and the quickest way to get back to sleep was to bring her in with me. DH has been a bad sleeper since way before we met so mostly slept in the spare room.

We continued with until she was 6! Then one night she suddenly started sleeping through all night. Now she rarely comes in unless she's ill. She would probably share with me if she was given the choice though. We still share sometimes if we are staying with family or in a hotel. She is waiting for an ASD assessment so that might have contributed to sleep issues.

DD2 Bed shared with me until 2 years as I was breastfeeding on demand. Then with DH for 6 weeks. Then with both DH and I until 3 years. She then shared a room with DD1 until she was 5 years old. Her own room since then.

DD now 8 years slept with me from birth while XH slept in our only other bedroom. Separated from XH when she was 2 years and moved happily into her own room just before she was 3 (took me ages to redecorate and sort furniture as a newly single mum working full time). Woke about once through the night with bad dreams for the first few months, cuddled back to sleep easily. Has gone to bed happily and stayed there for 10 - 11 hours since bar a few nights when she has struggled to sleep due to being over excited (last Christmas Eve was not fun, finally fell asleep 2.30am, woke at 6.30am).

Mine is still in my bed. She's nearly 10.

Oh wow I didn't expect so many replies. Nice to hear lots of co-sleeping experience so I'm not alone, and great for those who love it/have fond memories of it :) But I'd really like to gently move away from it if I can over the next few months as I'm just not sleeping...!

I had to go to university with them and then joined the martial home.
Or not. Total non issue here, with dc1 it naturally became less of a thing because I had dc2. Dc2 joined his sister in the bunk bed at about 2 1/2 and joined me when needed. (Both breastfed till 4 ish) Dc2 will get in with me at some point about half the week. They are now primary school age and I'm enjoying a coffee in bed alone, although dog has joined joined.