9 months: Bedtime in your own bed...

zeitgeist

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Oct 8, 2008
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Hello, everyone!

Since our daughter was born we've gotten accustomed to sleeping with her in the bed. It's unbelievably endearing and magical to wake up in the middle of the night with your baby patting you on the head, stroking your hair, or caressing your cheek.

Well, she's nine months old now - how did that happen? - and last night we put her in her bed. Oh, how she hated it! Cried and cried! We missed her too.

But what we're not exactly sure about is this: she's nine months old now. Up until now, mama has been feeding her several times a night when she wakes up crying. Should she continue doing that? Cut back on it? Start weaning now? I think she meant not to wean her until she's a year old.
 

Jeremy+3

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Apr 18, 2009
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Livvy still sleeps in our bed and feeds whenever she wants to in the night, technically you can wean anytime you like after six months, but personally, me and my wife would rather let our children decide when yo wean.
She has her own bedroom, she will take naps in there on her own, but it seems a bit pointless for us to bring her in our room for a feed and to then take her back in her room, when we could just be asleep and let Livvy get on with it.
 

mom2many

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Jul 3, 2008
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I would make the transition slow (co-sleeper here) start with naps and then work our way up to night time, I would still comfort her and nurse/feed her at night, there is plenty of time to start weaning her, but I would keep it to one thing at a time, sleeping in her bed..then weaning at night one feeding at a time. A lot of momma's wean the evening feedings but keep the bed time and morning feedings.

good luck
 

Xero

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Mar 20, 2008
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I agree with Jeremy that it really is easier to co-sleep. I still (pretty much) co-sleep with Eli. I don't think its a big deal personally, because our kids are only babies once and if you think about it, the transition would be easier when your kids are a little older anyway. As a little baby, you can't explain it to her, and she can't understand why its happening. She will cry and cry and think she's being punished and she'll be afriad of this entirely new situation and no one will be able to expain it to her. As a toddler, you can explain to her that she is going to start sleeping in her big girl bed, and that she will be so brave and that you will be right next door if she needs you at all, and that there's nothing to be scared of and you're not far away (babies that age are still learning that things are still there even when you can't see them, peek-a-boo is a great game for that). I mean, there are hundreds of ways to comfort a toddler through sleeping alone at night. Its very confusing and upsetting for a little baby. However, if you still want to do it (I don't blame you, it can be a pain to have a baby in bed with you all the time) I'm sure she'll eventually stop crying over when she gets used to it, and she'll accept the fact that it will be the way it is in time. I've heard with some people it doesn't take long, but I've also seen a few relative's babies that scream themselves to sleep every single night because they hate going to bed alone. But lots of babies go to sleep quietly by themselves at night as well. They are all different.

One idea to try would be to have her fall asleep in bed with you guys, and then transfer her to her own bed carefully.

As for weaning the night time feeding, every baby is different and has different needs and most of the time they know what they need and they ask for it, if that makes any sense lol. I was worried about Eli still waking up a ton at night at that age too. He still woke up... shoot, maybe three or four times a night at that age still!!! I was very concerned with it (I also went through a stage at the time of trying to get him to sleep in his own bed, and I found it actually made things WAAAAAAY harder on me because I had to get up and go in his room to feed him all the time rather than just have him next to me already, ugh!!) anyway and he was formula fed at this point. But I let him go because I couldn't force myself to have him go hungry and not feed him (it seemed wrong to me) and eventually when he was 11 months old he cut down to 2 feedings at night and at about 13 months he was down to one. He stopped waking up at night completely somewhere between 18 months and 2 years. This was all his own doing, I didn't have any hand in him cutting down. He just started to sleep more and more over time all on his own.

I woud personally at least wait until her night time feedings cut down to move her to her own bed, just at least to make things easier on yourself. :)

I also agree very much with what Mom2Many said, that's some good advice.

Just remember, your little girl will only be a baby once, and once this point in time has passed you will look back on it and wonder why you even thought it was a big deal. :p
 

16th ave.

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Jan 4, 2009
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lol, poor man. lets see. your initial thought was "no sense in her sleeping in there all by herself. she'll be so lonely. what if she needs us and we don't hear her?. it'll be much easier if she's right here with us when its time to feed her."
yep, that's how it happened with us. similar train of thought anyway.

i tend to agree with the co-sleeping thing and a slow transition. the girls still sleep with us when they want to. heck right now in our small space we all end up on camping cots (temporary beds for the girls due to the small space we live in), in the recliners, or in the bed. its never the same place each night. we did co-sleeping/transition thing with the kids. it wasn't all that hard. it was a bigger pain to fight them on staying in their beds when time came to sleep on their own when we forced the issue than it was to just give in and let them sleep with us and/or ('cause it was both) move them after they fell alseep.

you could go ahead and force the issue. make your dd sleep in her own bed and fight her on it or do the co-sleeping thing and wean her off sleeping with you guys. i'd go for the co-sleeping thing. much less of a headache since it relieves my fears of anything happening to the kids and maybe not hearing them when they need me.