Here’s how to stop cosleeping with your baby! Making the transition and moving baby out of your bedroom does not have to be too difficult! If you’ve followed the recommendations of cosleeping with baby for their first six months of life, it may seem daunting. But no worries! I break down exactly why stop cosleeping, and how to do it!
Why Stop Cosleeping
By the six month mark I was getting desperate. It had been well over a year since I slept for more than 5 hours in a row due to pregnancy bathroom wake-ups and our baby that didn’t really want to sleep.
When we were all sleeping together in a family bed for the first four months, things were pretty good. Baby Boy was on a twin bed between our bed and the wall, he had his own space and no one had to get up for middle of the night feedings.
Once we transitioned him to a Pack ‘n Play in our room though, things got tough: I had to get up out of bed and Baby Boy wasn’t sleeping any better.
Problems with cosleeping at 6 months
We identified two main problems:
1- The bed: the Pack ‘n Play did not seem comfortable at all, even once I added a mattress pad to it. Being that it’s sort of winter here, Baby Boy was also very close to the floor and I’m pretty sure being slightly too cold was waking him up.
2- The location: being in our room, specifically my room, made us too accessible. Why not have a little night snack when we’re so close- I mean he could easily see me, not to mention hear and smell when we came into the room at night.
The last couple of weeks, were a nightmare with Baby Boy ending up in our bed every.single.night. Because after getting up so many times, I rather just have him next to me and be able to pat him to sleep. So on the advice of many friends, and our own intuition that it was time to end this co-sleeping era, Project Move Out was on.
Fixing a drop side crib
We had two small issues to solve in order to be able to bring Baby Boy into the nursery full time.
Our first issue was that our hand me down crib, had drop sides. These had been declared unsafe, as baby could potentially get stuck between the side of the crib that dropped.
Rather than try to DIY it, we enlisted a professional carpenter to remove the drop side hardware and replace it with solid wood. We also had him replace the bottom of the crib with plywood so that the mattress was more comfortable.
Converting an Office into a Nursery
The second order of business was saying good-bye to M’s full time office, and turning it into a nursery.
One of the desks came out (and lives in our bedroom, so that M has a place to study in the evenings after Baby Boy goes to bed). The aforementioned crib, along with baby- stuff bookcase/wardrobe, and diaper pail moved in.
Moving into the Nursery
The move itself was actually completely uneventful. Baby Boy had no problem sleeping in his crib at night, as he had been doing throughout the day.
So far? Big success!* In a 12-hour night, Baby Boy usually gets up once to nurse for a few minutes and that’s it!
It has been so great, that I don’t mind that I need to walk down the hall to get him. Everyone has been sleeping so much better, and it’s kind of nice to have our bedroom back.
*Hopefully I’m not jinxing us. 🙂 😉 Wish me luck!
