Sleeping in Their Own Room

Happy Monday All. It's Christmas week!!!

Today is a question I had a mommy friend ask me to talk about. How do you get your baby to sleep in their own room? I'm afraid I don't have an answer to this because I know every child is different. I can, however, tell you what we did with Jase, What worked and what didn't for him and us.

Before Jase was born my husband and I knew we didn't really want to bed-share with him. I know this works great for some families but for us it was't going to work, so we wanted to make sure to avoid it the best we could. I want to insert here also that bed sharing and co-sleeping are two different things. Bed sharing is sharing the bed with baby and co-sleeping is sharing a room. We also knew we wanted Jase in his own room early on, ideally around 3 months, but we all know babies change plans when they're born!

Jase started out in our room in a bassinet type thingy attached to his pack-n-play. This worked great for a couple of days until we realized he had a reflux problem and needed a different soultion. I could go into a whole story about that, but I'll save it for a different day. A mommy friend recommended a Fisher Price Rock-n-play (RNP) so we bought that and Jase slept in it until he was around four months old. Around that age he started to get too big for the RNP so my husband and I needed to decide what to do with him. Because of his reflux, I was so afraid to put him flat on his back and in his own room so suddenly. I began searching the wonderful world wide web for answers on what to do with him. From my searching I found that parents had success transferring from the RNP to the crib by "mimicking" the RNP feel for the baby. See below for a way to mimic. We decided to try that trick, but still didn't want to move him directly to his room.

We opted to try Jase out on his back in the Pack-n-Play in our room to see how it went. This is where I will tell you when switching a babes sleep environment give it put to TWO weeks before you give up! The tradition took about a week in a half before Jase was back to his normal sleeping at night. Each night it got a little better. Around the two week mark we felt comfortable enough for Jase to be in his own room. He hand't had any spit up issues at night, so we worried a little less. When we moved him into his own room we did the same trick we used from the RNP to the Pack-n-Play for the crib. This again took about two weeks before his sleeping was back to normal. So the whole process was about a month of broken sleep (beyond the broken sleep you get anyways with a baby).

So, when Jase was around five in a half months old he was sleeping in his room and almost through the night. I actually think he started sleeping longer stretches when we moved I'm (after the initial two weeks). Possibly we were waking him up by checking on him for everything little moan and groan.

What we did was not always easy. There were so many times I wanted to just lay Jase next to me and fall asleep. Getting up out of bed to feed him and have to put him back to sleep some nights was REALLY hard, especially when we was in his own room, but I do think in the long run it helped him develop good sleeping habits. I also want to say that we followed his lead a little. We looked for cues of what worked for him and us once he was born. Obviously he wasn't out of our room at three months old like we originally wanted.

I want to note that every sleep decision made with Jase was a decision that both my husband and I made together. I really think it's crucial for dad to help as much as he can at night. (I know there are a million reasons why this is not always possible, but if it is, have him help) Having a back up will really help with sleep for everyone. There were times when whatever I was doing with Jase wasn't working, hubby would step in and Jase would be asleep in a minute. 

What worked for you when switching you child to their own room?

<3 Lindsey

Trick to mimic RNP: get a beach towel and lay out. Roll it up long ways. Stick the rolled towel under the sheet and make a "U" with it. When you place the baby to sleep place them inside the "U" with their butt sitting against the bottom of the "U". Place each side of the shape against their body. Each night move the sides a little further away. (turning the "U" into more of a "V"). Eventually you can remove the rolled towel all together. What this does is help the baby feel secure when they startle awake. Their little arms hit the towel and instead of flailing about and they also feel like they're sitting: like they sort of do in the RNP with their bum touching the towel. *I don't suggest this trick if your baby can roll over at night*