Topic : Where Should Your Child Sleep?

Problem:  I used to rock my son to sleep.  He will not go to bed without me rocking him, or laying down with him until he's asleep.  He's always slept in his own bed, so that's not a problem.  I need advice on how to break him of needing me in there or rocking him to sleep.  I'd love to be able to say "bedtime" and he just go into his bed, lay down, and go to sleep. 

Hi, I have an 8-month-old and he has slept with me and my husband since coming home from the hospital.  we tried the co-sleeper bassinet, and his own crib but he just was not happy.  I do not believe in "crying it out".  So he slept with us up until a week ago.  Because he became very active, and a few times i woke up just in time to see him crawling towards the end of the bed . . we decided it was time to transition him.  He now sleeps on his crib mattress on our floor next to the bed.  I am still nursing him so he tends to nurse at 11pm and then again around 2pm, i just crawl on the floor and nurse him.  its a little more effort on my part but i think it is working fine.  We will move him into his room once he stops one of the feedings . . .I'll keep you posted . . 

Wendy 

Anything you want to happen can.  Unfortuantely we are all lead by emotion to some degree.  It is very easy for some people to say something is easy, but they aren't you.  what is basic in one house could be non existant in another.  Instead of asking a board of strangers (i did the same thing-not putting you down) ask people with similar values, morals and with children hopefully a little older than yours so you see their results.  It is all about weighing things out.  If it works for your household than it works.  I used to nurse my daughter to sleep until 11 months, rocked/danced her to sleep until 14 months and then my back couldn't take it.  (I would probably do it differently now, but that is me and she was my first.  To break her of needing so much of me I put her into a twin bed on the floor at a year and just sat beside her in bed rubbing her back.  I think sometimes I would pick her up and rock her but always sitting down.  Within a week, i could just rub her tummy.  Within a couple of months I could jsut fold laundry in her room while she drifted off.   

I beleive that children need to be taught how to sleep just like we teach them to eat, to walk, to potty train.  Spending the extra time early on has allowed my daughter to not fear bedtime now.  She has never cried when i say it is night night time.  Every child that I know who has been left alone to cry in a room cries at the word bedtime.   

My way may not work, but you just have to find what works for you and your family.  Babies just want to be close with their parents, its human nature.   

Hi! I'm a 21 year old mother of two. My oldest, Emmalee, just turned 2 this month, and my youngest is Alecxander and he's 3.5 months old. I've co-slept with Emmalee pretty much from the day we brought her home from the hospital. We tried to get her to sleep in a crib the first few nights, and I was trying to breastfeed, but she would wake up every half hour or so. 

The delivery had been very difficult (it took me almost 3 months to be able to leave my house and not be in pain after 5 minutes) so it was hard for me to get up and down and out of bed so much. My husband has worked third shift since the day we met, and so it was just me with her at night, so I wound up taking her into the bed with me. Immediately, we were sleeping 8-10 hours a night. She still sleeps with me now. 

When I became pregnant with our son, we talked about what we wanted to do. I was nervous about co-sleeping with an infant and a toddler by myself, so we agreed when he was born, we'd try the crib again. Well, I wanted to breastfeed, and even though the delivery was fairly easy, the first few nights we did it backwards and I tried to sleep with him on one end of the couch and our daughter on the other end. He was waking up just as often as she had at first, and neither she or I were getting any sleep, so I moved him into a crib and she and I slept in my bed again. But he was still waking up every hour, to nurse, at 6 weeks. So, I did some research. The crib he sleeps in has a flat mattress, almost like a soft floor surface, and I decided that I would try putting him to sleep on his tummy. The first night I did, we all slept 10 hours, with me waking up nervously every so often to check on him. 

Only recently has he started waking me up every 3 hours or so. I think he could be teething, and I don't believe in CIO, so it's tough, but I can function very well on the amount of sleep I get. 

My parents successfully co-slept with 4 kids, and my youngest brother, the 5th and youngest of us, is adopted, and my parents were mid-50's before he came to live with us. He slept in a crib for the first couple of years and then boucned between siblings beds until my eldest sister moved out the house to go to college. By that time he had started sleeping on the couch in the living room because it was firm and comfortable and he wasn't liking the waterbeds we all had. When my older brother went to college, the youngest took his room. 

We all transitioned to our own beds when we were either ready or when another baby was on the way. My parents took the time to explain to us that it was time for the baby to share with them and that if we needed them, they were right in the next room and could hear us or be in our rooms in a matter of seconds. They had no problems, and none of us have sleep issues, so I'm not worried. My daughter will transition when she's ready and comfortable. 

Maria