@y0ung1996 You don’t have to sleep train. I didn’t sleep train any of my babies. I know many moms who have sleep trained and they all have to keep “retraining” during teething, illness etc. it doesn’t work. A baby won’t sleep through until they are ready.
That said I bedshared with both kids. My first started at 9months randomly. My second at 20months. Both sleep in their own bed now.
@momrn3 Also one of the reasons sleep is hard at eight months is because babies typically have a spike in separation anxiety around then. If you cause a deliberate separation by sleep training at this time, it doesn’t feel very fair to the baby IMO
@y0ung1996 Sleep is really developmental! Around age 2 my two kids were sleeping through the night, and night weaning happened pretty easily.
My daughter was still in my bed until age 5, and I don’t regret a second actually. Sometimes she still falls asleep with me and it makes me so nostalgic. My son is still in the sidecar crib in my bed too, he’s just turned 3. I was hoping he’d room with his sister, but he is just not ready. And that’s ok.
I like that as toddlers my kids went to bed every night feeling safe. I’m proud of that and I don’t regret it, and would do it again the same way.
Other kids are ready sooner, just follow your instincts.
@y0ung1996 I would switch to bed-sharing from the crib when you get into bed. My husband and I sleep in separate beds which makes it a lot better as well, because it’s not enough room otherwise. I also don’t do the cuddle curl because it hurts my hips. She sleeps up next to my head/shoulders to the side. It’s so much easier and you don’t need to feel bad about it. Especially at this age.
@y0ung1996 No advice (except that you can start brushing his teeth) just that my baby is over a year old and cannot sleep without a bottle. He sleeps next to me or husband or sometimes between us, so one us gets up to make him a bottle at least once per night. Just last night he woke up and showed me his bottle that still had a cap on. I took it off and he fell back to sleep. He wakes up 2+ times per night. BUT his sleep is better than when he was 8 months. It will get better.
@y0ung1996 My first is 2;10 now and besides not wanting to leave our bed (like - ever! He cries if I offer him his own bed for sleeping), he sleeps through the night, is weaned and wakes up with a smile on his face. It will get better.
For us, weaning was a big step forward, because he started sleeping through the night. But I coped until he was nearly 2 though I worked again since his 1st birthday.
