Advice for moving DS to his own room

[macca08]

We are hopefully moving house in a couple of weeks. DS is 9 months next week and we plan for him to sleep in his own room once we've moved. At present he's in with us and whilst he has a cot next to our bed, he's mostly in bed with us all night and dreamfeeds alot throughout until morning.

Any advice on what we can do now before we move so it won't be so traumatic for him, as I imagine it will be totally upsetting all round? Thanks mumsnetters

TBH I wouldn't do it all in one step.

I'd keep him in with you in the new house to begin with, and keep everything the same.

Then I'd work on getting him out of your bed and in his cot all night, except for feeds.

Only once he's happy with that would I move him into his own room.

Going from in bed with you and feeding in demand all night, to being in a cot in his own room in a new house is a big jump.

If you want to start preparing him now though, start returning him to his cot after night feeds, and see how he gets on with that.

Good luck

Yeah I agree with Jojay... Is it the case that you havent got room for the cot in with you at the moment?

Two options: cold turkey and slow and gradual. The fact that you're co-sleeping means that slow and gradual is probably the approach you'll take, even if in lala land you think it would be very nice if he just suddenly slept through the night in his own bed in his own room. I remember at 6 months when DS was waking hourly I'd go to sleep every night thinking "maybe tonight he'll sleep through." Wow, such optimism. Now I'm unabashed about co-sleeping and do rather enjoy the cuddles.

I would recommend trying to get him to take his daytime naps in the cot in his own room to begin with, and once he's used to the surroundings you can begin to think about the transition to night-time sleeping.

We co-slept until about 7 months but found it was resulting in us getting no sleep as he is a very wriggly baby and could easily wake us up every 40 minutes.

It took us a long time to get him into his cot properly, but hell it was worth it.

It was gradual but he hasn't been in with us whatsoever for a good few weeks now (and even before that it was only for an hour or so in the morning) - he's now almost 11 months.

Initially what I did was do the dinner, bath, feed, bed routine (putting him down at about 7-half 7). I never ever let him fall asleep while feeding though. DS has a dummy so that was definitely helpful.

I put him down. Went out the room for no more than a minute (I don't believe in CC), then came back in and patted his back/shushed him/sang to him until he'd calmed down. Then would leave the room again and if he wasn't settled I'd go back in after another minute and repeat the procedure until he settled.

If he really wasn't for settling at all I'd pick him up and give him a cuddle and start again afterwards.

I would say from starting that routine to having him fully settled into it took around 2 months. It was hard not to give up and take him into bed, but I'm so glad we persevered.

Now I have a dream of a baby at nighttime (and believe me he was a nightmare a few months ago).

Now he has his bath, sometimes has a feed, sometimes not, goes down in his cot and I leave the room. 9 times out of 10 he falls asleep straight away and most nights he will sleep through until we wake him up in the morning!

Co-sleeping in the early months is lovely, however IME (although granted it won't be like this for everyone) it becomes a bit of a nightmare with night feeds and wriggly babies.

Sorry that was so long, but hope it was helpful.