How to Transition from Bedsharing to Crib
Many sleep journeys include bed-sharing with their baby, whether it’s for cultural reasons, searching for a way to get better sleep, or simply because the parent wants to! If you find yourself yearning for more space or more restful sleep, I am sharing some top tips on how to make the transition to baby’s own sleep space a smooth one.
Starting the bedsharing to crib transition:
Step 1: Make the baby's room or sleep space a familiar one!
Spend lots of time during the day playing in their room, playing in and around their crib, and creating positive associations. You can do their daily routines there, and just generally spend lots of time there in the days before making the transition.
Step 2: Use the power of your scent
For a couple of nights before the transition, I recommend sleeping with your baby’s crib sheet in your bed, to transfer some of your smell to it. When you lay your baby in their own sleep space for the first time they will have the same comforting scent there as well.
Step 3: Be consistent
Once you are ready to take the leap and begin placing your baby in their own bed, be very consistent. I recommend that your baby sleeps in their bed for EVERY sleep for at least a month to help reinforce that this is where sleep needs to happen. It’s much harder on them and you if you go back and forth, sometimes bringing the baby into your bed, and into their bed other times. Not to mention very confusing for the baby! After their new sleeping arrangements have been pretty solidified and accepted, you can try bringing them in with you for snuggle time or sleepovers. I follow the 80/20 rule for my own kids- 80% of their sleep happens in their bed under optimal conditions, and the other 20% can be elsewhere.
So how do you actually get them to sleep in their crib?
You can take things very gradually and increase the time they spend in their crib overnight (ie one sleep cycle, then until 10pm, midnight, etc) and stretch that out however slowly or quickly you’d like.
Any sleep training method can help with this. We like to help to sleep first by either rocking or feeding, then fade out that support or start to help to sleep in the crib (back pats, gently rocking them side to side, etc) and then helping less and less (ie just to calm vs all the way to sleep). And continue doing that until they’re able to fall asleep independently in the crib.
Another option would be using a floor bed or a pack n play like the guava lotus.
The “baby only sleeps when held” blog has other options as well!
For bed-sharing toddlers
For a toddler who has spent most of their life sleeping with mom and dad, transitioning to their own separate bed in a totally different room might be too much for them all at once. Try a floor bed in YOUR room first to get them into their own sleep space, while also keeping them close by. Once they are more comfortable in their separate bed, you can transition to having them sleep in their own room. This is a very gradual process, and you may have to implement a sleep training method that is appropriate for toddlers to help them through this transition. We often use the chair method for this age group with great success!
Here’s another blog on this topic!
When can my baby sleep in their own room?
If you need a little more support for this transition, please reach out to me and I would be so happy to assist you through it!
