How to develop a bed/nighttime routine when co-sleeping?

[Mawood]

We are co sleeping with our 8 weeks old daughter. It works very well for us. She sleeps all through the night and I sometimes have to wake her (she doesn't really awake though) for nursing. However I am wondering how to develop a nighttime routine when you co sleep so that she eventually goes to bed earlier than
I do. She is still so young but I can see it with the naps. She basically naps at my breast and awakens a few minutes after I had put her down in her bassinet. I don't mind it yet but it would be nice if she would take her naps and early sleep without me. What are your experiences with that?

[HappyMonkey]

I would love info on this too!

[NEastMomma]

Yes, me too! DS (7mos), DH and I have only been co-sleeping for a month or so and we have trouble putting DS down w/out us at night.

[Louisep]

Well, I think every baby is different. Some babies (like mine!) want to nap on their mama until 10 months old. We were lucky in that DS started to go to bed without me at around 3 months. Before then we just all went to be together (I was exhausted anyway!). IMHO it's not something you need to worry about until at least 3-4 months, which I think is when circadian rhythms develop (?).

Bedtime routine really didn't mean anything to DS until about 10 months, but we consistently started putting DS down for the night around 7pm from 3 months. At that time we used a baby hammock and he was sleeping well, but from 5 months to 9 he required lots of rocking and bouncing and then I would steal away. I had to wait until he was in deep sleep as noticed by his breathing and sucking.

I think with time, babies just learn to sleep on their own but it takes varying amounts of time to do this.