Shift sleeping in baby's room with twin bed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood how sleeping in the same room helps to prevent SIDS. If you are asleep, how would you know if your baby stops breathing?

My understanding is that hearing the rhythm of your breathing helps the baby maintain their rhythm. But I think it's also one of those mysteries.

Same room is easier, I think. I don't know for sure, because we didn't try having them in their own room, but it just makes sense that if you're getting up a lot, not having to go far works.

I think your idea of a twin bed in the other room is a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood how sleeping in the same room helps to prevent SIDS. If you are asleep, how would you know if your baby stops breathing?

My understanding is that hearing the rhythm of your breathing helps the baby maintain their rhythm. But I think it's also one of those mysteries.

Same room is easier, I think. I don't know for sure, because we didn't try having them in their own room, but it just makes sense that if you're getting up a lot, not having to go far works.

I think your idea of a twin bed in the other room is a good one.

The rhythm thing is what I have read too.

[Anonymous]

OP I think twin bed and shift sleeping from the start is a fabulous idea. We ended up doing that starting with the 4 month regression. We didn’t do it from the beginning because I was breastfeeding and we had a night nanny, so really no need for husband to be up. I say go for it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah this is a good idea. I couldn’t sleep well next to my newborn so we ended up doing shifts on the livingroom couch and and bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did shift sleeping like this for about the first 6-8 weeks. It was important to us that both of us got adequate sleep. It worked quite well. I wouldn’t say we were full of energy and super well rested but neither of us was delirious with sleep deprivation. Around 6-8 weeks, we dropped it as the baby started sleeping longer stretches.

We actually did not ever room share, in the formal sense— our baby was always in her own room/crib, with black out shades and low white noise going. We stopped sleeping in her room when we stopped sleeping in shifts and just used a baby monitor instead. I agree that the “room until 6 months” advice is just a rough guideline and doesn’t need to be followed to the point that you or your parent needs to literally sleep in the baby’s room until they are 6 months.

Btw, you’ll see a lot of advice and guidelines when you become a parent. Sometimes the advice makes sense for your family, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s well-supported by evidence, sometimes it’s not. And sometimes what is advised in the US is actually counter to other countries, etc. This is one of those guidelines that I think does not need to be followed to the letter as long as you practice other safe sleep things— nothing in the crib until a certain age, etc.

This, and OP remember that the guidelines are written for the lowest common denominator. Which is pretty low (get on any FB mom group if you want proof, people are amazingly stupid). You have to use your own judgement and understand why certain things are recommended so you can decide whether the recommendation actually works for your family or not.

[Anonymous]

This is one of those things you can’t crowd source.
You really need to do what works best for you. I think your idea sounds nuts, but I’m not you.
We adopted DD at 30 days and she never slept in our room. We never slept in hers. We kept formula pre measured in her room for the night time and whoever’s turn it was to feed her and change her went in and did it.
She did have a bio sibling die from SIDS so we were paranoid about that. She had a fan on in her room every night for the first year to keep the air moving. Nothing in crib etc.
I’m also a fan of CIO but not at 6 weeks. They don’t sleep through the night until closer to 4-5 months. Unless your definition of through the night is 3 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, we are due in a few months and after the first few weeks all together (bassinet in master bedroom) are considering doing a shift sleeping schedule where each parent sleeps half the night in a twin bed in the baby's room, switching in the middle of the night. Our master bedroom is very small and we are both light sleepers, so we figure this is the best way to ensure we are both able to get a decent chunk of hours in a row each night while still practicing room sharing for baby's safety. I do not plan on EBF, so that is not a concern.

Did anyone else either do or try this? Are there any drawbacks we're not thinking of or any tips to make this work well?

Ridiculous. We put baby in crib in nursery from day one and used a baby monitor. Stop making life harder than it needs to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After 6 weeks, your baby should start to sleep through the night. The only thing sleeping in the baby's room is going to do is wake the baby up. Get a sleep monitor and sleep peacefully in your room. It is common for the baby to wake up a bit at night and chat to his or herself - only rush in if the baby does not seem to be able to self soothe after 5 or 10 minutes.

***Time to you will seem to go very slowly. The baby will not feel abandoned if you let him or her try to self soothe for 10 minutes.

Make sure it is seriously dark in the baby's room - black out curtains are a must because babies are very tuned in to small changes in light and you don't want to be waking up at 5am every day this summer.

This advice will save you years of sleep problems. (Mom of 5 here - ask me how I know!)

Haaaaa

[Anonymous]

My first was a preemie, and had scary episodes of breathing stops, so he slept next to my side of the bed in a bassinet. I don't quite know how I managed to sleep and wake up to move him when his breathing stopped. I must have been in severe sleep deprivation but didn't realize it.

My second was healthy, so she slept in our bed. She woke up 6 times a night for two years, and I was very glad she was in our bed so I didn't have to get up too much. I was severely sleep deprived, and this time I realized it. Now she's a teen, and she still needs very little sleep and gets up at 5am.

So do what you want, OP, knowing that your child's specific needs may upend your best-laid plans!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 6 weeks, your baby should start to sleep through the night. The only thing sleeping in the baby's room is going to do is wake the baby up. Get a sleep monitor and sleep peacefully in your room. It is common for the baby to wake up a bit at night and chat to his or herself - only rush in if the baby does not seem to be able to self soothe after 5 or 10 minutes.

***Time to you will seem to go very slowly. The baby will not feel abandoned if you let him or her try to self soothe for 10 minutes.

Make sure it is seriously dark in the baby's room - black out curtains are a must because babies are very tuned in to small changes in light and you don't want to be waking up at 5am every day this summer.

This advice will save you years of sleep problems. (Mom of 5 here - ask me how I know!)

OP here - FTM but everything I have ever read about safe sleep practices indicates that room sharing is important for the first 6 months...

You do not need to room share for 6 months. My son was in our room for 6 weeks and then we transitioned him to his own nursery (right next to our room) and he immediately started sleeping 8-9 hours straight.

[Anonymous]

This makes sense to me. I breastfed so in our case, I slept in a bed in our baby's nursery and DH slept in our room. We all started off in the same bedroom with a bassinet but eventually ended up with me in the nursery so DH could sleep since the baby just woke up to eat and then easily went back to sleep.

In your case, shifts make sense.

Also I have no idea why someone is insisting you don't have to room share for 6 months. This is standard advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After 6 weeks, your baby should start to sleep through the night. The only thing sleeping in the baby's room is going to do is wake the baby up. Get a sleep monitor and sleep peacefully in your room. It is common for the baby to wake up a bit at night and chat to his or herself - only rush in if the baby does not seem to be able to self soothe after 5 or 10 minutes.

***Time to you will seem to go very slowly. The baby will not feel abandoned if you let him or her try to self soothe for 10 minutes.

Make sure it is seriously dark in the baby's room - black out curtains are a must because babies are very tuned in to small changes in light and you don't want to be waking up at 5am every day this summer.

This advice will save you years of sleep problems. (Mom of 5 here - ask me how I know!)

Babies should sleep in parents room till age of 6 months according to my pediatrician and experts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 6 weeks, your baby should start to sleep through the night. The only thing sleeping in the baby's room is going to do is wake the baby up. Get a sleep monitor and sleep peacefully in your room. It is common for the baby to wake up a bit at night and chat to his or herself - only rush in if the baby does not seem to be able to self soothe after 5 or 10 minutes.

***Time to you will seem to go very slowly. The baby will not feel abandoned if you let him or her try to self soothe for 10 minutes.

Make sure it is seriously dark in the baby's room - black out curtains are a must because babies are very tuned in to small changes in light and you don't want to be waking up at 5am every day this summer.

This advice will save you years of sleep problems. (Mom of 5 here - ask me how I know!)

OP here - FTM but everything I have ever read about safe sleep practices indicates that room sharing is important for the first 6 months...

You do not need to room share for 6 months. My son was in our room for 6 weeks and then we transitioned him to his own nursery (right next to our room) and he immediately started sleeping 8-9 hours straight.

Nope, 6 months before being moved to own room.

[Anonymous]

I still can’t get over the jerk claiming babies sleep through the night at 6 weeks. This is why first time moms have postpartum depression. Totally unrealistic expectations.

[Anonymous]

I guess we're the odd-family out because we kept DD in our room (in her own crib) until she turned 1 years old. Never had any problems with sleep and recently just transitioned her to a twin bed at 2.5 (in her own room) without any issue.

Do what works best for you, OP. As for the room-sharing SIDS prevention, my understanding is that no-one sleeping too deeply is the whole point.