Baby E will be 16 months old in a few days and we are still co sleeping and breastfeeding. We have started the transition to move her into her own room and we are doing our best to make is as simple and organic for Baby E as we can. I have had a few people ask us how we are doing the transition so I thought it would be easiest to answer in a post.
Baby E has been co sleeping with us since she was born. We had planned to room share with her as we did with our older 2 children. With Baby E we bed shared as well - it wasn't planned but things happened that just made the situation make sense for us. We were hoping to transition her out of our room by 18 months so the planning and early transitions began at 14 months and are still now continuing.
In my opinion, co sleeping is so important if you are still night time nursing. I don't think i would have been able to continue breastfeeding and functioning if it wasn't for bed sharing. I do not believe there is any age limit that needs to end co sleeping and we set the time of 18 months because Baby E was showing signs of readiness, we were showing signs of readiness and our plan was to make it a smooth, gradual transition.
When Baby E was 14 months old we started the process of transitioning. We first started with putting a crib mattress on the floor next to our bed. She has never slept in her crib before - ever - and it made sense to us that she get used to the mattress first. We would let her play on it and get used to seeing it there and would let her know that is her new bed.
We did this for about 2 weeks before we started her new bed time routine. Before this I was nursing on demand and was just on her 'schedule' and I was not setting any routine for her. So, new routine started with dinner then a warm bath playing in the tub with her brother and sister. Daddy would give her the bath every night then pass her to me wrapped in a towel. In our room, with the lights off and a fan going for soothing noise I would get her dressed and rock her for a few moments. I then lie her down on her mattress on the floor and nurse her to sleep lying down {she has always been nursed to sleep}. She would climb back onto our bed at around 3am to nurse and would stay there until we woke up at 8am. Officially sleeping through the night - she was getting 7 hours straight on her own bed.
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| Baby E's bed on the right - and our bed {with no box spring} on the left |
We continued this routine and she was getting used to what she should expect. She would climb up the stairs after dinner and head to the bathroom to get ready for her bath. After I got her dressed she would point to her bed on the floor and lie down. Starting around 15 months - one month after the nightly routine - she started to sleep longer and longer and would not climb back into the bed until 7am to nurse - so she was now getting 11 hours of sleep!
Things are progressing perfectly right now. She will be 16 months old in 5 days - and just starting this week she has begun to fall asleep without being breastfed to sleep. Since I believe very strongly in child-led weaning this was the next step that needed to happen in order for us to transition out of room sharing. She has also started to take her afternoon nap on her bed in our room - she is getting used to sleeping alone and sleeping without waking to nurse.
Over the next two months we are going to continue this strict night time routine. She is making all the moves on her own and we just need to be patient as she learns to be on her own. Once she is consistently night weaned we will be moving her crib mattress out of our room and into the room with her sister. We will continue the same night time routine and if everything keeps going as well as it is now - she should hit that milestone by 18 months old.
If you read my blog or know me you know where I stand on sleep training. This method works for us - and for Baby E. It is not quick since it is taking months but I don't expect her to just out of no where stop sleeping next to me if it is all that she has ever known. She is growing up and getting more comfortable with sleeping on her own. I will keep you all posted on the progress!
. :: How did you transition your co sleeper?::
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