'Sleep in the same room until 6 months'

[Sazzles169]

This may be a daft question from an FTM with a newborn but how seriously are you taking this advice (always having someone in the same room as your sleeping baby until 6+ months) from the NHS for naps?

Do you, for example, set your babies under 6 months down for a nap then leave the room for 10 mins to shower etc? If so, or if you leave the room for longer, do you use a baby monitor?

Tia

Do you have a partner that could look after baby while you shower? I've never left mine for a nap but simply because he won't go down without waking up. But I'd follow the guidance where possinle. If I'm showering and husband isn't here I'll put his swing chair in the bathroom x

With my first, I would take the bouncer chair into the bathroom with me so I could shower.

We have an ensuite now so I'm putting my second down to nap in the bassinet and then showering with the door open. Will also leave them for a few minutes to put laundry on or whatever.

As a mum of 3, bouncer in bathroom while you shower is a must.. its always been a life saver since day one xx

For naps I used to just pop them in a bassinet in a quiet room on the same floor as me, and pop in and out as I did my jobs around the house. I didn't see the advise as having to literally watch them breath, just be aware of colour, position and breathing patterns overall.

I stuck to it religiously for the first 3-4m then started putting her down in the bedroom at night and going back in the living room next door from about 4m with the baby monitor on for an hour or 2

I just put baby on the floor in the bathroom whilst I showered or did it at tome
when DH was home.

I coslept at night and baby was in our room for probably closer to a year.

For naps though I would bumble around the house. Park the pram in the hallway and carry on with what I needed to do. Especially if you have an older child the baby did not always sleep in the same room as us but they were usually within ear shot but far enough away not to be woken up too easily by a toddler. A sling for baby sleep is also really useful. Most of the naps my first baby had were probably contact naps.

But the formal advice is based on the benefits of baby of being able to hear another person breathe whilst they’re asleep it helps them regulate their breathing and reduces the chance of Sid’s.

Naps were either pram while walking or moses basket downstairs so I whatever I was doing (often also napping on the sofa if not pushing the pram) I was in and out of the room due to house layout, would often put moses basket in whatever room I was going to be in the most.
Nighttime was interesting, DC slept 5 hours pretty much from day 1, I got a terrible chest infection when they were 5 months so I moved into the spare room so I didn’t keep everyone awake coughing. DH was still in same room though, we moved DC into own room a couple of weeks later without issues

Mine were in a moses basket that could be moved around the house downstairs or upstairs. Great for when going to bed as you just carried it up the stairs when I went to bed and didn't need to disturb them. When outgrown a baby bouncer can also be moved around.

We didn't know that baby regulates their breathing and temperature with help from mum. I had read about twenty parenting books but they were mostly by nannies who are good at getting babies to settle.

Babies slept in their own room from day one with the baby monitor picking up proper crying, not snuffling.

Now I would do things differently just in case, given what I know. But I'm not sure it would be the right decision, really. We needed to rest and our babies used to wake at six and sing to themselves for half an hour before going back to sleep. I don't think we would have retained our sanity.

Deadly serious.

I stuck to the guidelines for the safety of my dcs. Often I'd just nap when they napped, or read my kindle, for six months it was no great hardship (actually I continued for much longer thatn 6 months because it was nice to have that quiet time).

We followed it til 6 months. Couldn’t see any reason not to. Baby napped in the sling / contact / pram on the move or in the house / she’d nap on our bed and I would nap or read next to her. Kept her up with us til we went to bed. My DH does wfh though so I had time for a shower in the morning before he started work. Did cooking/laundry etc with baby in a sling

DD only ever slept in someone's arms (or in the car!) at that age so we kinda stuck to the advice by default!

Given the option though, I would have stepped out long enough to pop to the loo, make a cuppa or answer the door to the postman but probably not long enough for a shower.

I’ve roughly stuck to it but have nipped fir a quick shower and pottered in and out the room here and there.

interestingly I’ve been away with family this week and they think I’m crazy for not putting baby in another room to sleep. I’ve been putting him down at around 9ish and just going to bed myself and they think I’m bonkers for not just leaving him to it and coming down the 2 flights of stairs to sit with everyone else.

Not for naps, only for night sleep. My babies napped outside from two weeks old so not in the same room as anyone.

This helicopter parenting is insane. I always left mine in their rooms with the door open.

I’ll get hung drawn and quartered but I didn’t have my baby in with me ever. In fact they even slept on a different floor! For naps it was either in the pushchair when walking around or I had a travel cot downstairs. Baby would go to sleep and I’d get on with stuff that needed to be done. At night we had a good routine and baby in bed by about 7.30pm and then I’d go down cook dinner and spend the evening with my DH. I had a baby monitor. Then when we went to bed I’d go in for a sleepy feed then only get up again if the baby cried.
If awake when I took a shower I had an en suite so I’d just have baby in the bedroom and left the door open so I could see him and he me.

Once my son got to 4-5 months I did his naps in his cot to try and get him used to it. I always showered when he was asleep from when my husband went back to work and had the monitor on the loudest volume while I was in there - obviously very quick shower because they don’t sleep for long when very young (in my experience haha!). I took the 6 months sleeping in the same room as you very seriously - I just thought if god forbid he had any problems / chuffing died or something, I would always wonder if that was a contributing factor (but obviously that’s just me personally). I read there’s some merit to the thinking our little noises and turning about etc in the night helps them to not go into too deep of a sleep when newborn as a theory for helping protect against SIDs?

My brother died of cot death and my babies regularly stopped breathing when they slept, so yes, I watched them like a hawk.

Mine always came in the bathroom with me in the basinette while I showered at that age and yes definitely in the same room until 6 months.

Not really for naps, if they fell asleep in arms and I successfully transferred to bassinet/next to me then I'd potter round house doing stuff and just keep checking in.
I only took them in the bathroom with me in bouncer for a shower if they were awake.

Night time sleep yes, same room almost until 2 for some of them. Or ping ponging from kids room to my bed

This advice was just coming in when DD2 was born. Both DDs were in the cot (cotbed) at three months in the next room, when they outgrew the moses basket, particularly DD2 (who is 5'10" adult height). As for sleeping in the day they would be on me, in the pram, on the baby gym or be put down for a proper nap in the cot as they got older. In neither house did we have a big enough bedroom to have the cot in the room with us, though we certainly did some unplanned cosleeping as well. The record was five in our kingsize bed. Baby, pre-schooler, DH, me, two cats. Everyone seemed to sleep except for me. DD2 we changed it to the toddler bed very early too, as it was much safer risking her falling out of a low bed onto cushions than clambering out of the cot and ponking her head, as she was so tall and strong.

This is like when you hear people say "we didn't have car seats and my kids survived".

DD napped/slept wherever I was until about 12 weeks, after that she was in her own room in her cot.
I wouldn't have wasted nap time on a shower - she was in the bathroom in the bouncy chair awake, usually yelling. When she was very new and slept I tried to sleep too, or just sat, catatonic for a bit.

Why couldn't you keep baby down until you went to bed.