How to co sleep when baby goes to bed at 7 and we go to bed a few hours later

[gratefulma]

I want to ask all the co sleepers, Where do you put your baby when they are tired and you aren't ready to go to sleep? Every evening we try to establish some sort of routine... nothing is working so we try different things. We have a 6 month old baby who fights going sleep. Sometimes it takes us a few hours to rock/bounce/hop/nurse him to sleep! I can tell that he is tired but fights it! He is tired around 7 pm and we are not tired until around 9:30. Where do you suggest our baby sleep in those few hours? He ends up sleeping in one of our arms because if we try to put him in his crib, he wakes every 15 minutes or so. I think he can tell we are not with him. What routine do you have at night? Do you go to bed at the same time as your baby? I will not let him cry it out, so any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

[CatsCradle]

We've co-slept with DD in our own bed since birth and she is now five.  She was very much like your baby in the earlier years (impossible to put down, etc.). Finally, we got into a routine of both laying down with her in bed until she was fast asleep.  This actually took about an hour, and then we would get up and go about our business for the next few hours. (Btwn:  we made our bed safe so she wouldn't roll out) Sometimes she would wake up crying and we would have to lay down with her again, but usually the second or third time, she would fall to sleep much faster.  She is now taking it upon herself to sleep more by herself, but we're not there yet.  

I know it can be slightly frustrating, as I know for me, I still had tons of stuff to do before I went to bed and it just wasn't practical to go to bed at the same time for the rest of the night.  The routine of laying down with her for an hour or so worked for us, though.  

[AnnieA]

DD's crib is sidecarred to our bed but she starts the night in our bed. She falls asleep in our arms and then we lay down with her in the bed and gently transfer her. We put her mostly in the middle of the bed but closer to the side that has her crib attached. We have a video monitor so we can watch her if we hear her stirring around. Then we get up and go about our evening. If she cries out, we just go lay down with her until she falls back to sleep.

[WaitingForKiddos]

I've always nursed DS down in our bed and then scoot away from him and leave the room. Typically he goes to bed at 8ish and we go to bed at 11. During the transition from non-rolling baby to toddler that can get out of bed safely we used a bedrail. Before he turned one he would typically need to be nursed back down once but these days it's a solid sleep. I LOVE the time between 8-11! 

[gratefulma]

Thanks guys, I will keep on trying.. my DS fights that sleep!  He also makes that humming/groaning sound before he sleeps. We rock him in the bathroom with the fan on a lot! The white noise seems to help. It helps to hear other moms suggestions and ideas.

[lovepickles]

We have a king size mattress on the floor and a hepa air filter. We turn the filter on sing and  bounce her a bit then after she is asleep we carefully lay DD down in the middle of the bed few hours before we go in. It usually works. If she cries we immediately run in and bounce or nurse until she goes back down.

[marcusdaddy]

We co sleep with our 2 and 3 yr old. They go down between 6-7pm. We do not go to bed until after 10 most nights. We are able to turn on the tv and low lights without them waking. They are pretty deep sleepers the first half of the night so thankfully we can do that. Its nice to relax in your own room.