Move baby from our bed to his own

Since we came back from Mater Dei Erik has been sleeping in our bed at night. During the first weeks he wanted to be next to us, latched on or just on me, then he wanted to be touched, skin to skin through out the night, and later on it was sufficient for him to just open his eyes and see that one of us was next to him. We didn’t want to let him cry, we are against the cry it out method, so we just followed his lead and kept him as close as possible.

Professionals recommend that babies could/should be moved in their own bed at around 2-3 months of age. This is when they have developed the skill to see patterns and understand better they’re environment. They feel much more reassured. If one tries to move the baby in his own bed after 3 months of age, he might find it harder cause the baby will have already developed the routine of sleeping with his parents. To be clear though, I am of the opinion that if the baby still appears to need sleeping with his parents, meaning he cries when left to sleep in his own bed, he should stay in their bed for as long as needed. If of course it is an option to bed-share safely. In our case I really hoped Erik would be fine with it cause bed-sharing wouldn’t be safe once he’s mobile.

Erik is now 2 1/2 months and three days ago he started showing the first signs of being able to move while lying down. I put him in bed, went to the kitchen for 5′ and then I found him in a diagonal position. I assumed we were not far away from being able to roll on one side. So it was about time to start the experiment and transfer the baby in his bed.

Actually, it’s been easier than I thought. He was ready for the transition. I am not sure if the fact that we’ve been using his bed for play sessions might had helped him to get used to it but the last two nights he’s been sleeping in his own bed, right next to ours, and almost no crying. I nursed him as usual on demand and held him in my arms for around half an hour after each feeding session. Babies go through different sleeping cycles than adults, moving from light sleep to deep sleep every half an hour. So what I did was to hold him until he went into deep sleep before placing in his bed.

What I also found out that helped him sleep soundly was to put close to his face the muslin that I used to burb him (it smells like mummy so I guess any used cloth would/could do). When he opened his eyes a little bit and showed signs of waking up while still being sleepy, I gave him his dummy and he went back to sleep. Now he sleeps better and so do we cause he doesn’t wake up when I get up -for instance- to go to the toilet and I do not wake up when he kicks in his sleep.

Category: Erik and me