A question for co-sleepers...

i just wanted to ask fellow co-sleepers how you get your baby to go to bed before you? lately it seems like ds will only go to bed when i go to bed, and last night i wanted to stay up to watch the end of 'so you think you can dance' but he just wouldn't go to sleep! i used to give him a breastfeed lying in bed after his bath, then sneak out of the bedroom and come back out to watch tv, but lately he's been waking up and crying after about half an hour. in the end, i just bite the bullet and go to bed with him so that he'll sleep. any suggestions on what else i can do? thanks

With DS1 I used to sit on the bed and stroke his forehead and down his nose. He loved the interaction and always stayed asleep afterwards.

HTH

Hi

With our DS, I find that he sometimes drifts off to sleep if I gently rock him in his rocking chair while I watch TV in the lounge room. DS likes to be in the same room as either myself or DH, so far this has been working. Once he has drifted off to sleep I can carry him to either his cot or our bed.

Best of luck! :D

thanks guys, yummy mummy, i do the forehead stroke sometimes..and sometimes it works. he loves me to do it when he's in the sling.

great idea about the rocking chair jade, i've got one in the other room but i never use it! might have to get dp to put it in front of the tv tonight!:)

Hi, it is a tough one. We sort of co-sleep the babies start in the cot, then when they wake we transfer them into bed, which is anywhere from 10pm-1am. What about watching TV in bed??? Oldest is now 3 and he generally prefers his own bed, but sometimes gets in and DD 2 is just starting to sleep through occasionally goodluck wish I could give you more advice. If it is a worry to you and you would like to start to get bub sleeping in there own cot a sleep clinic is a good idea. You don't have to take everything they offer you just what works for you!!!

I always went to bed at the same time, but DS would be well asleep by then because I'd have done my evening things with him in the sling. We don't watch TV, but for me it would be internet (BB!) that I would want to do. Cos he was so small it didn't matter that he was still on me.
As he got older, he would stay asleep on his own in the bed and when he stirred I'd jump in.
Put it this way, knowing how little this time lasts, I was happy to have him on me because I knew it wouldn't feel like too long before I'd have to put him down first (with him getting bigger and more cumbersome to carry for more than brief periods etc) :)

Ok - so nobody yell at me!! BUT...

Charlotte is a tummy sleeper, im a night person and when DF is at work (2 weeks at a time) she sleeps with me in the bed. What i do is get her off to sleep (she usually falls asleep feeding) then we have a cuddle for 1/2 hour or so and then i go and transfer her on to my bed. Ill put her on her tummy cos shes more settled that way and put the pillows around her (shes not rolling yet) and come to bed when i do a few hours later, and shes generally fine. Otherwise she sleeps on me until im ready for bed! lol
So maybe try the tummy thing? I know youre not *supposed* to do it, but I find its generally the only way she sleeps well for more than 2 hours.

Good luck!

I tend to give Savannah her bath, we crawl into bed together and she falls asleep on the boob. I sneak out quietly. If she wakes after half an hour, I go back in, don't turn on any lights and crawl back in to offer her the boob again. She usually falls asleep pretty quickly again and in 15 - 20 minutes I am back out and can stay out for the rest of the night.

The DVD recorder has become a new friend as I've given up trying to watch any night time TV anymore. I just watch it the next day during one of her naps.

Sometimes too I find if I stay in for an hour after the bath, she'll do her half an hour stir, see me there and go straight back to sleep. I can leave after that.

Limeslice - Savannah was a tummy only sleeper up until recently too. The only way she'd stay asleep was on her belly. To start with she just wouldn't/couldn't sleep on her back at all. Then one day she just seemed fine sleeping on her back. Although I do sometimes wake up in the morning and she's rolled onto her tummy.

I've been pretty lucky that brendan goes off to sleep and is hard to wake (i can move him from car seat into cot without waking him)

Gracie, The other ladies have had some brilliant ideas.

Limeslice, brendan was a tummy sleeper for ages. He had colic and reflux when younger, and the only way i could get him to settle for sleep was to put him on his belly with his knees slightly up (bum in the air). Once asleep I was able to put him onto his back. Now that he is rolling he gets put down on his back and quite often ends up asleep on his side or belly.

Gracie, Hope you find something that works for you :hug:

I had this problem with my bugalugs as well, it got better as she got older. It still happens now, and I tend to run in and offer her milk when it does. Does your baby sleep with a dummy? I found that the dummy helps Aurelia sleep.

I was going to suggest a dummy as well. It helps my liitle guy sleep too.

I stroke their foreheads and they go off to sleep instantly!!