Another Dec Baby Co-Sleeping Question

[doclegs]

For those of you with teeny-tiny ones.... how exactly do you do the "going to bed thing"?? Our LO really needs a bed time of between 7-8pm, but Mommy would like to stay up until 10pm to get some work done. If you are co-sleeping, how do you do this? Where do you put the LO during that time? If you put LO in a crib, how do you do the transfer to bed? If you put the LO in bed, where do you put them?

For the last few weeks since her schedule has been more predictable, Mommy has just been going to bed at 8pm with her, but now that I feel less sleep-deprived, I'd like to put her to bed and stay up for a while. She just sleeps better next to Mommy right now.

[lalemma]

I would love to know this, too!

Henry would probably like to go down for the night at about 8-9, but since he can't be put down and I'm not ready for bed that early, I just hold/wear him and he nurses and naps until we go to bed at 11. Then there's more nursing, and I swaddle him, and lay him on the bed next to me. He usually falls asleep at that point (although there are some "YOU PUT ME DOWN?!?" false starts...) and I get my precious hour a day to do things without a baby on top of me. Well. So long as I stay on the bed. If I leave for more than the minute or two it takes me to pee and brush my teeth, he wakes up.

So I use that time to catch up on emails, fold laundry... stuff like that.

I wish that he'd consent to going to bed earlier and by himself, but he doesn't, and I'm not willing to try any kind of sleep training. Also, he's actually a really good sleeper as long as you're with him, so I feel like kind of a jerk complaining about this at all: I know there are many, many families who have babies who wake up every hour, you know?

But I'm still looking forward to the hypothetical day when he goes to bed before I do and sleeps for a few hours, and I can get my life back together a little bit.

[evinmom]

Originally Posted by lalemma

I would love to know this, too!

Henry would probably like to go down for the night at about 8-9, but since he can't be put down and I'm not ready for bed that early, I just hold/wear him and he nurses and naps until we go to bed at 11. Then there's more nursing, and I swaddle him, and lay him on the bed next to me. He usually falls asleep at that point (although there are some "YOU PUT ME DOWN?!?" false starts...) and I get my precious hour a day to do things without a baby on top of me. Well. So long as I stay on the bed. If I leave for more than the minute or two it takes me to pee and brush my teeth, he wakes up.

But I'm still looking forward to the hypothetical day when he goes to bed before I do and sleeps for a few hours, and I can get my life back together a little bit.

This is us most nights. For 4 nights (not in a row) over the past 2 weeks, I was able to swaddle and then rock/nurse Everett down around 9pm. Then I put him in the middle of a cleared off king bed on his back. He was swaddled tight. I put another blanket over him real tight and tucked it behind his back so he couldn't break out of his swaddle and end up with blanket over his face. I left the baby monitor 2 feet from him and carried the receiver with me. Those nights he miraculously slept for 3 hours like that before waking. I keep trying the same routine every night. Some nights it doesn't work and we go back to wearing him until we are ready to go to bed ourselves.

[ErinYay]

V's a very easy sleeper, so this may not help so much.

Around 9, I go into our bed and nurse her. Then she goes on my (or DH's) chest for a bit, we pat her back and sing to her, then she goes in the cosleeper. When we go to bed at 12ish, I get her up for a nurse and a change, then it's either back into the cosleeper, or asleep with us.

[Tattooed Hand]

I have no idea if R is an easy sleep baby or not... partly because this is my first, but also because anyone around me that I have to compare it to, do things WAAAAY differently. Plus, she's almost like a different baby every night.

But all in all, DH or I either have to wear her or I have to nurse her down. We do this lulling her to sleep thing when she displays signs of fatigue induced crankiness, usually which can be anywhere from 8:30-11:30, which depends on how much she slept during the day, which depends on how much she was awake the night before. I'm usually fine to get in bed with her because I can read or do stuff on my laptop (or even eat). We've managed to get her to be OK napping alone (if I slip away after she's out cold) for 30-60 minutes but there is no way she'd have any of it at night and also, usually by then I am so tired, I'm fine with doing quieter stuff. If I need to get up to wash and brush or anything, DH takes my place in the bed with her. Though last night I nursed her down, got up for a few minutes and she woke up and got really mad that DH's hand was not my boob. 30 seconds after I put my boob back in her mouth she was dead to the world.

[onyxravnos]

i nurse him down then hang out and read for 30 mintues to an hour until he goes into deep sleep. then i sneak out of bed and go do whatever i needed to.

[Craftymama]

I am so lucky with this one. She is usually ready for bed around 8. I nurse her and put her down in the sidecarred crib. Sometimes she wakes up 30 minutes later and then I bring her out while we are watching t.v. and put her down again. Then Ali doesn't wake up again until 1:30-2. That's when she comes into our bed. Sometimes I scoot her back into the crib and other times (depending on how awake I am) she just cuddles up next to me.

[Awaken]

Mine is 9 weeks and we just started "putting her to bed" in the past week or so. Before that she was always with me, as I watched tv at night. She lately got so fussy during this time that dh just put her to bed one night and she slept great. We're realizing that she needs to go to bed between 7-9pm but the problem is, the older kids do, too, and it's really hard to put them to bed and read with them and spend quality time, with her fussing and needing my attention, too!

When we do get to it, after she's been nursed a ton, me or dh swaddles her and she sleeps in a carseat next to my bed. I NEED a couple hours to myself or with dh so I stay up until 10 or 11. I know I should go to bed earlier but I crave alone time and do horribly without it.

When I come to bed I have to unwrap her, change her, and nurse again, and *hope and pray* she goes back in the car seat and will give me a few hours' sleep before the first wakeup! After which she sleeps with me, because I am too lazy and tired to get back out of bed and it's easier just to fall asleep with her.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by onyxravnos

i nurse him down then hang out and read for 30 mintues to an hour until he goes into deep sleep. then i sneak out of bed and go do whatever i needed to.

[Tattooed Hand]

Originally Posted by onyxravnos

i nurse him down then hang out and read for 30 mintues to an hour until he goes into deep sleep. then i sneak out of bed and go do whatever i needed to.

Yeah, except by then I am usually too tired to make it out of bed. At least DH gets an hour or two at night alone...