co-sleeping advice with 9 mo old

[carolb4]

My partner and I have a queen size bed. Our daughter has slept with us from the beginning, however, she is obviousy getting bigger and tosses much more. She also nurses frequently during the night. The nursing seems to be a comfort more than hunger.
In any case, we can't afford a bigger bed. If I do try to move her to her crib how do I do it lovingly?

Suggestions for the situation needed.

[Ldavis24]

easiest thing is to side car the crib so you can still co-sleep and nurse but she can have her own space and you guys can have more of the bed.
DH and I have a queen as well and he is a very tall and big guy. Since we side-carred the crib we have had way more room and DD has more space too which she likes because she sleeps spread eagle half the time.

I don't have the link but if you google side car crib you can find great illustrations on how to do this safely...

Also I found at around 9 months DD was nursing a lot at night, I think in part because she was going through a growth spurt or something. She is 11 months now and nurses maybe once a night.

Goodluck!

[Louisep]

Ditto the side car option. It has worked really well for us since 12 months and now I can finally tell my mum that the crib she bought us is being used

[Shanny2032]

I knew from early on that moving my daughter out of my bed was not an option for either of us really. I have the advantage of no partner in my bed with me but I just wanted to say to go slow whatever you do and try and find time when the babe isn't going through other things that will throw a monkey wrench in it. Good luck!

[PluggingAway]

Both my boys (almost 4 and 17 months) coslept with us in our Queen bed until about 12 months. When it was obvious to Dh and I that cosleeping was no longer working for any of us, we moved our kiddo to a "bed" (a comfy stack of eggcrate mattress and blankets) on the floor in their room. Their "bed" was/is big enough for an adult to lay with them so we could parent them to sleep. If they wake up through the night we (mostly me when nursing) go into their room, lay with them, and we fall asleep. So yes, I'm in and out of our rooms through out the night. I felt weird at first about my kids not having an official bed and sleeping on the floor, but it has worked out really, really well for us. Sometimes I'm restless in my own bed and actually feel glad when Ds wakes up and I can go lay in his room where it's warm and snugly and I get a really nice stretch of sleep. When my oldest was 2 years old, he moved from the floor into a twin bed with a railing. We didn't use the crib with either of the boys and I'm not even bothering to set it up for babe #3 due this Summer. Good Luck with your transition!

[dziwozony]

For what it's worth, with both of my boys I reached a frustrating co-sleeping stage when they were 9mo! Something about the combination of how much they were squirming, rolling around, & their frequency of nursing just got to me & I felt like I couldn't co-sleep anymore! I would start to consider other options, & things settled down.

Eventually, I sidecared with my older son & that worked well.

[Carhootel]

I would recommend the book the No Cry Sleep Solution - it really helped us transition ds out of our bed. Although to be honest he is still in our bed quite a bit - but I don't mind that, it's just easier sometimes, but I could not have gotten him out of our bed without the gentle sleep solutions in that book