Operation Co-Sleeper Eviction - HELP!

[Kitt3n]

Now that there is another little one on the way I want to gently ease Laa out of full time co-sleeping. I have no idea where to start.

Her cot is up next to the bed, it acts as a safety barrier. So she is familiar with it as a "thing", but not as her bed.

I nurse her to sleep, on the bed. Often though she will stop nursing and roll over and "spoon" me - she snuggles in really deep. She loves to be cuddled to sleep.

She has one day nap, also in our bed.

Up until around a month ago she would have 2-3 dream feeds a night. Lately with her teething she has been waking anything up to 10/12 times a night and the only thing that settles her is boob.

Any ideas as to how to implement operation eviction?

Once she was asleep for her day nap today I did put her in the cot (rather hard to do, bending over the rail over the side of the bed). She woke up shortly thereafter, crying of course.

[Kazbah]

No idea, but good luck

[maz]

could you get a toddler bed hon?
Tank would sleep easily in our bed and his cot but hated the sight of his big boy bed (normal single) so we bought a toddle bed and he loved it. We began day sleeps in it and slowly progressed in a matter of week or 2 to night sleeps but it worked.

I cant comment on dream feeding...maybe give her sepcial baby of her own (it worked well for us with mini me), she now cuddles her baby to sleep every night

[cheekyfrog]

A toughie! My DS is also co-sleeping and feeding two to three times a night. Those big nights of constant feeding are killers! Usually I've noticed he feeds like that and then comes down with a head cold, so maybe he has a sore throat and the extra feeding soothes it. Lately I've been getting him to sleep at night and, if I haven't fallen asleep too, I get up and have some "me time" and then I've been trialing going to bed in the spare room. When DS wakes up and gives a little cry, I wait to see if he settles again. If he doesn't then I move back to bed with him. I work full time so the day carer gets him to sleep on one of those little kids sofa chairs that fold out. I have had zero luck getting him to sleep at home during the day on ours, so like you, I let him sleep on the bed. I've been thinking of making a more serious attempt at getting him to sleep in his cot but I have also been thinking of converting it to a toddler bed. Not much help, I'm sorry, but I'm interested to see what advice you get!

[CrazyLady]

I'm trying to remember how we got DD out of the habit of waking up when being put carried to cot and down and also trying to come into the bed/only settling in the bed with DP and I. Will get back to you if I remember hun but for the mean time wishing you heaps of luck. DD only comes in now when she's really upset from reflux/teething.

[ElleJay]

I'll be subscribing because DH wants to evict DS into his cot and although I don't want to just yet, we've got no room whatsoever to sleep cause we're being so careful

[Olive]

maybe look up jay gordan and see if what he suggests looks like it may help you, its more about night weaning but its for co-sleepers, i do it but DD is already in a cot

[ll80]

When you figure it out tell me

Maybe try put the cot mattress on the floor next to your bed. That's what we do. E sleeps down there most of the night. She will not have a bar of the cot.
Once she is in a deep sleep I just slide her over to the cot mattress. (though we are also sleeping on the floor at the moment but you could do it with a single bed? making the bed bigger and room for everyone?)
We're thinking of getting a toddler bed too or putting her into sleep with DD1 because she loves to cuddle up too.
She slept two nights on her own in her own room on mattress on the floor then the stupid molars started coming through so we are back to co sleeping and one grumpy mumma from lack of sleep.

[Ginger]

i'm subscribing to this thread as i have no idea how i'm going to evict my 2 little snugglers!

i tried to evict ds1 when i was pg with ds2 but it just never happened LOL

[thepixie]

I've got no idea babes but just wanted to say good luck!!

[Indadhanu]

Two words: Floor bed (for her not you! )

We used a double mattress but thats because thats what we had spare, a single would work too.
It eliminates the side rail problem, which we had. We really sucked at putting her in her cot, she'd end up wide awake because I'm too short to put her in, I'd practically have to drop her in, and she is really tall so she could never coordinate herself (don't ask me why, she just couldn't LOL).

We just fed her to sleep on the mattress and then once she was asleep we got back up. We ended up putting her in her own room at that stage, but if you have room in your room I think it'd work too. And when she wakes just snuggle into her bed, feed her back to sleep, and go back to bed.

I worried about her crawling around, or playing, but its funny, she actually started sleeping BETTER, and we didn't have to get up so early as she was content playing with some toys in her room for a little while until she needed us.

Worth a try anyway.

[Kitt3n]

Thankyou everyone. I am loving these ideas.

Laa actually fell asleep BY HERSELF on the bed for her nap today. Please tell me this sounds like a natural step in the right direction?!

She really does hate the cot so I think we will have to ditch it. I am loving hte idea of a floor mattress (I think we still have the slats from DD1's old bed that we could raise it on). Otherwise I think Ikea have a similar sort of thing?

[Indadhanu]

LOL, or you could just put the mattress on the floor Thats all we did.

If you want a 'real' floor bed, ypu'll find some on Montessori websites.

[~Kim~]

After asking around we did the mattress on the floor thing, but he just wasn't into it. He's gone straight into his bed (a regular single) with a rail because he's so little. I sold the cot before he was one as it was an abismal failure.
Now we've gone and moved on him so we're back to square one but I will get there....

[CrazyLady]

Now we've gone and moved on him so we're back to square one but I will get there....

Funny you should mention that. I went on holiday 2 months at parents and first month was co-sleeping. came back, spent 2 nights in old house fine but then moved and she was back co sleeping until we (gently) relaxed her back.

I layed next to her cot with my hand in it until she dozed then dozed myself on the floor to reassure her i was still there. I dozed next to her cot and put my hand up everytime she woke to grab her hand.

[Nai]

maybe look up jay gordan and see if what he suggests looks like it may help you, its more about night weaning but its for co-sleepers, i do it but DD is already in a cot

:yeahthat: We used the Jay Gordon method to stop the night feeding and transition DD2 to her own bed. It made a big difference!