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Sleep

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Original poster

How many of you actually stuck to the guideline to keep baby in your room for first 6months?

78 replies

Thandeka · 01/06/2010 07:00

DD is 4 months and in a co-sleeping cot right next to my bed (DH sleeps in spare room on weeknights so he can cope with work and in with us on weekends). I am torn between putting her in her own room early or keeping her with me for the first 6months at least. For us it would mean she would go in "spare room" and DH would come in with me again which would be lovely. Although at the minute she seems to be in the middle of the 4 month sleep regression doo dah and is waking a few times in the night so I love the co-sleeping cot as I can pull her onto the boob and push her off without having to get out of bed most of the time! But then she can also be a noisy sleeper and sometimes she wakes me up and then I become aware my boobs are full and then can't sleep for until she wakes up sometimes an hour or two later- unless I wake her. So wondering if I would get more sleep if she was in her own room (and she might too as we disturb her maybe)? Despite having to get up in night.

Hmmmmmmm.

Although is only 10weeks until she is 26weeks and I can start weaning and put her in her own room and with any luck she will be past this silly sleep phase and sleeping through [wistful thinking emoticon!]

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

chocolatechomper · 01/06/2010 13:17

Both of mine were moved into their own rooms at about 4 months because they were noisy sleepers and I was getting even less sleep that I would do normally. The move went absolutely fine and I had no regrets, but you have to do what's right for you. Good luck.

foureleven · 01/06/2010 13:24

framey - so they should be right next to your bed too then? With the door shut?

Glad I didnt bother keeping DD in with us for longer then cause she was right over the other side of the room by an open window, thought I was being good keeping her with me for the 3 months I did manager but may as well have not bothered!

If that is true then why does the HV/ midwife not tell you that?

Rhian82 · 01/06/2010 13:32

We put DS in his own room a week before his first birthday, as before then we lived in a one-bed flat and didn't have anywhere else to put him! But I was always terrified of cot death and wouldn't have moved him before six months anyway.

FrameyMcFrame · 01/06/2010 13:37

what is the reason for keeping them in the same room with you then? Why does it reduce the chances of SIDS?
More babies die from SIDS when they are in a room on their own. There must be a reson for it.

The carbon dioxide theory is just a theory, it hasn't been proven. But I can't see why it would make a difference otherwise

foureleven · 01/06/2010 13:39

Well I dont know, I never understood why it would make a difference. When I saw your post I thought that was the answer, but if its only a theory too that explains why they dont tell you it.

HerBeatitude · 01/06/2010 13:42

Yes I did, for a year.

I never had a problem with DS waking me up - once you've established BF, you get used to the noises and snuffles and just sleep through it (well I did anyway)

HerBeatitude · 01/06/2010 13:44

I didn't do it because it was a guideline btw, I didn't know it was a guideline (perhpas it wasn't in those days).

I did it because it would have seemed v. strange to me not to.

bounty007 · 01/06/2010 13:48

DS - 4 nights
DD - the first night in hospital
own room asap. for me.. a well slept mummmy is a happy mummy
(much to the horror of my peers!)

flyingcloud · 01/06/2010 13:49

I had no idea it was a guideline!

DD has slept in our room on about ten seperate occasions in the first 16 wks of her life but I won't give you my thoughts on the subject as I didn't know it was a guideline and usually I am a stickler for those!

AvengingGerbil · 01/06/2010 13:55

I'm glad this guideline didn't exist ten years ago. Two weeks of a baby in the same room was about a week and a half too long.

lou031205 · 01/06/2010 14:01

DD1 24 weeks (we had been to France & seemed silly to settle her again in our room then move her 2 weeks later)

DD2 17 months

DD3 13 months and counting...

fortyplus · 01/06/2010 14:08

AvengingGerbil - ds1 is 16 and the guidelines said 6 months then! Just be grateful you didn't know

FrameyMcFrame · 01/06/2010 14:09

nobody knows what causes cot death despite thousans of studies and research. They only know that the statistics point to some things increasing the risk.
The least risky thing is to sleep with the baby in a cot by your bed sleep safe

foureleven · 01/06/2010 14:10

Is it an official guideline? No one official told me, and that was only 4 years ago.

Its only since shes been a lot older and Ive looked on forums like this that ive known about it

cheesesarnie · 01/06/2010 14:11

i loved having them in with me!dd was probably a year,ds1 about 8 months,ds2 about 1 and a half to two years.

HeadFairy · 01/06/2010 14:11

ds was in our room until he was 5 months but that was because I'd promised the moses basket to a friend and she had her baby a couple of weeks early... dd is still in with us at 5 months, if she still fits I'd like to keep her in for another month or so as she's still feeding a lot at night and I bring her in to bed with me for feeds. I can't quite face trudging to her room 3 times a night yet!

delpyf · 01/06/2010 15:32

I just made the move to sleeping in the spare room at 10 weeks. I wasn't getting any sleep and neither was ds as I kept picking him up every time he squeeked and was missing his dad as he abandoned us for the spare room right from the start. We are now all getting much better/longer sleep and the whole thing is so much easier to cope with. Out of curiosity I checked the statistics for cot death compared with downs syndrome. Approx 1 in 1000 babies in the UK has downs syndrome wheras the incidence of cot death is only 0.49 per 1000. Have decided not to make my life a living hell of sleep deprivation based on a less than 0.05 % chance of cot death

ladymarian · 01/06/2010 20:47

DD went in to her own room (just across the landing from us) at 8 or 9 weeks.

I knew about the 6 month guideline but it just wasn't working out. DD starting sleeping from around 9 at night til 5 or 6 in the morning at that time so it meant we were creeping past the moses basket in to bed. Also she made a lot of noises in her sleep and the moses basket looked so uncomfortable. I was a bit worried the first night but we had a baby monitor and we all slept better so it was the right thing for us.

zapostrophe · 01/06/2010 20:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

missmapp · 01/06/2010 20:56

okay, so im a terrible mother, but both mine were in their own cot in their own room from day one. Their room is only next door to ours and we had a monitor, but I just found feeding easier in the rocking chair in the nursery, i could put the light on and dh wasnt disturbed ( why have 2 sleep deprived parents when bf ) I know I am in the minority, but it worked for us

ClimberChick · 02/06/2010 00:00

About 5 weeks for us. I couldn't function in the mornings and I felt that was far more hurtful to LO. I had very little patience so moved her out and now there's alot less crying. Saying that I'm still a little grumpy in the mornings so once DH goes to work she normally comes into bed for another hours sleep.

ChloesDad · 02/06/2010 06:14

Our DD1's been in her own room since about 3 months and has been absolutely fine.
She outgrow her first cot so it was a comfort thing more than anything else, but we haven't had any probs at all.
As for the cot death thing - with her monitor turned up I'm pretty sure we hear everything we would if she were still in with us, if not more.
Having said all that she's been sleeping through since before she went in her room, and I can imagine it being difficult to combine own room with a few night feeds.
Above all though, do what feels right for you - chances are if you're happy and comfortable, baby will be as well.

nooka · 02/06/2010 06:37

I don't think I managed more than a couple of weeks with ds, and a couple of months with dd. I became a very light/poor sleeper during pregnancy and for a long time afterward and just could not sleep at all with them near me. The chances of me completely losing it because of sleep deprivation outweighed everything else, and ten years ago the back to sleep campaign was the only real message abut SIDS (plus not smoking and breastfeeding, but I'm not sure if those were in relation to SIDS or not). With dd we ended up sleeping on a futon in the living room until she was sleeping well enough to go in with her brother. I guess I might have made a different decision if I'd been able to feed them in bed, but all that seemed to result in was milk everywhere! So I woudl have been getting up and taking them into another room to feed in any case.

ben5 · 02/06/2010 06:38

ds1 was about a month but that was because of room in our bedroom and closeness of his room to ours. ds2 spent most of his first 6 months in hospital so not really an issue there! do what you are happy with

thumbwitch · 02/06/2010 06:48

I had DS in bed with me for the first 5 1/2m until I found that we were both suffering more lack of sleep with sharing. Then he went into his cot in the next room and stayed there until he was 18m - when we packed up the house to emigrate. For 3w he was in a travel cot at my Dad's house, in the next-door bedroom to us - but then we came to Australia and stayed at MIL's house. Circumstances there meant that I couldn't make him stay in his travel cot - had to sleep in the same room as him, couldn't put him to bed and leave the room (stupid house layout) so he wouldn't settle in the cot if I was there in the room with him. Ended up co-sleeping again and he still does at 2.6mo.

TBH it is partly my fault now - he's much easier to share with than DH!

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