Hello! I live in a rambler and the master bedroom is downstairs, while the baby's room is upstairs. He sleeps in his crib for naps, but in a bassinet in our room at night. He is one month old today!(!!)and will sometimes sleep 5-6 hours at a time between feedings at night. He is usually good at soothing himself to sleep, but sometimes needs us to give him his paci or put him in his vibrating chair to sleep. I go back to work, teaching, at 12 weeks and need him in his own bedroom by then. When should I put him to sleep at night in his own room?
ASAP I let my son sleep in my room, had his crib in there and now he refuses to sleep in his own room, I would say just get a good baby moniter and stick him in his own room.
Please get a co sleeper that scoots up to the side of your bed. Don't put your infant child in a different room, much less on a different floor at night. I think a crib in his own room for naps is fine where you are up to check on him often. If you use a full size crib, wrap him up tight and put rolled up blankets around him so he feels snug and secure. He is a tiny baby in a huge world. Imagine what it feels like to be him left alone in a big room, in a big bed, in the dark. I know some doctors recommend putting them alone from birth, no way!
My kids are 2 and 5 now and slept with us until about one 1/2 at night and still like to snuggle or crall in bed with us on occasion. Think about it, before you know it, they won't even want to be in the same room with you, much less let you snuggle them. Take the opportunity you have to hold them tight.
I put my first born in her own room the first week she was home. There's no reason why you can't do it now. If your comfortable with it do it now or wait until he's 8 weeks. At his age I don't think he'll know the difference.
You can move your baby to his whenever you're ready. Our son slept in our room in his crib until he was 7 weeks old because we had tons of family visiting and they were in his room. Once they all left, we moved him. He slept much better in his own room because we weren't waking him through the night (DH is a snorer). If we hadn't had family here, our son would have probably been in his own room by 4 weeks - I went back to work when he was 5 weeks old. If you're worried about being able to make sure he's breathing and all that, there is a monitor than has a pad you put under the crib mattress and it will send an alarm if the baby stops moving or rolls too far off the pad. I believe it's called the Angelcare monitor.
You can try now or wait til he's outgrown the bassinet. Some parents have the crib or a pack n play in their room for the pure convience of not traveling around the house in the middle of the night.
For me it was easier to have my daughter in my bed,after she outgrew her bassinet I was to exhausted to get up and and walk around the house.It's just so much easier to roll over and pop a pacifier in or feed in bed half awake.I did try the whole put her in her own room with her own crib but that meant alot of running back and forth and I was paranoid she'd stop breathing or something.I didn't have the luxury of napping the next day had to work.So sleep was a big deal to me. But I also got myself into a habit and my daughter is now 6 and still in my bed. It doesn't bother me though so it's all about what works for you. My daughter barely used her crib, her toddler bed and her big girl bed so I could have saved myself alot of money not purchased any of them.
I'm sure you're going to get a lot of responses on this one. The idea of being on a different floor is a scary one to me just because I hate going up and down the stairs in the middle of the night especially when I'm super tired.
Our baby slept in our room until 2 months. She was in her crib in her own room until 5 months. Then she was in our bed until about a year. Next she has a full size futon on her floor she and a parent sleep on until she was good enough that we can leave her alone at night. So we sort of did some things backwards, but this is what worked for us. I'm hoping at Christmas to get her a "real" bed.
My MIL, who is a labor & delivery nurse, told us that she learned at her conference this summer that the latest research is that babies should be in your room between 2 and 4 months.
S.,
My first son slept in our room until he was 5 months (we were living in a one bedroom apartment at the time). My second son slept in our room till he was nearly 7 months. Both boys transitioned easily into cribs. They now share a room that is very close to ours. I don't think I'd be comfortable with them on a separate floor even now, but that is just me.
You do what feels right to you. But, I do think that newborns should be close to their mothers.. at least until 6 - 8 weeks or so. I suspect that at this point you would be up checking on him even if he was sleeping... :) Give yourself and him some time to get used to living together before you move him so far away.
Something else to think about, there are some months when he won't sleep well... before crawling starts, when teething, etc. It might be hard on you to have him far away when he is fussy and awake alot at night. Maybe there is an alternative to having him on the other floor... but not right in your room?
Good luck!
J.
SAHM to Charlie (2) and Joey (10 months).
I think that 2-4 months is the best. My Andrew was 3 months old and it worked well, he had almost outgrown the basinet. He also took naps in his crib. I think we slowly moved the basinet into his room and then had him even sleep in that in his room for a few days for him to get used to that space. I think that you have to make the best with what you have. So your bedrooms are on different floors...oh well. I would stay away from the kids in your bed idea at night time. It is a hard habit to break and hard on the marriage! It also is hard on getting good sleep. I think that you can snuggle during the day time hours. While reading books, talking, or watch a movie.
The sooner you get them into their own beds, the better. It's much quieter for all of you and everyone will sleep better. At 6 months kids should definitely be in their own beds and sleeping through the night.
Best Wishes,
J.
I am not sure I can give the best advice as to when to move the baby into his own room but when you do I would invest in a well built baby monitor. We have used a Sony baby monitor with both of our kids and it is really great. Luckily a friend of mine did the research for me on monitors and bought about 10 of them, tested them (for static and other annoying noises), and picked this one as the winner. It has a very nice voice activation feature...if you set the monitor to this setting it will only pick up noise such as crying and talking but you won't get noises like music playing, cars driving by the house, etc. I did a google search real quick and found it selling at amazon...here's the link...
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Baby-Monitor/dp/B00006FWVN/ref...
Good luck.
We have a rambler with the master on the bottom floor too. I think we started putting my son upstairs around 2months old, once he was napping pretty well in that room. Don't worry about not being able to hear him--our monitor is so sensitive, I hear him better now than when he was in our room, even with the volume at the lowest setting!
