Bed sharing with your little one
can sometimes be a pretty easy solution
to whatever night issue is going on at the time.
However, it can really quickly turn into a new sleep habit,
and, depending on the age of your baby,
it can be a tricky one to move away from.
Today, I am answering your sleep question,
"My eight month old has had a few days
where we bed shared with him,
how do I get him back in his own bed?"
So stay tuned to find out my advice.
Hi, I'm Nicky,
I am a mother to three beautiful children
and one of the founders of Little Ones.
At Little Ones,
we specialize in infant and toddler sleep and nutrition.
We are passionate about
helping families improve their little one's sleep
and overall wellness
through establishing healthy sleep patterns.
We would love to help you and your family
through our comprehensive sleep programs,
which are housed inside our custom built app,
so please visit our website, www.littleones.co,
to see how we could help you further.
Unfortunately, it only takes about three days or nights
for your little one at eight months old
to form a new sleep habit,
so whatever the reason you brought your little one
into your bed with you,
very quickly this has now become a sleep habit for them.
And it is a sleep habit
that needs a bit more of a gentle approach
to get your little ones sleeping back in their own bed.
First thing that you want to do
is make sure that your little one
is sleeping in their own bed for their daytime naps.
And this is a really good place to start,
if they're not already,
because this helps to solidify their bed or their crib
as the place where they sleep.
That's going to make it a lot easier for them
to move back into there overnight.
For their overnight sleep,
you're probably going to have to take quite it gently.
And bear in mind,
that your little one is now used
to your comfort and your presence
when they're going to sleep.
What you're going to want to do
is introduce a new settling method,
which is you hands on settling your baby
to sleep in their own bed.
And so that might mean
that you are putting them in their bed at bedtime,
you are patting them, you are soothing them,
you are tapping them.
You are soothing them and actively putting them to sleep
in a very hands-on way in their bed.
You're going to probably have to do this
every time they start waking
between their sleep cycles overnight.
You're essentially re-introducing
a new, different sleep association for them,
but this one has the added advantage
of it being in their bed.
So then, once they're okay with this,
after a couple of nights
of you actively settling them to sleep in their bed,
then you can start work on gradually reducing your input.
So then every couple nights,
you're going to reduce the amount of settling
that you have to do,
so you're going to settle them until they're say 80% asleep,
then 70% asleep, then 50% asleep.
You get what I mean,
so that eventually over the course of a couple weeks,
you've slowly undone that sleep association
of them sleeping in with you
and then of the sleep association
of you actively settling them to sleep.
You're just reducing your input each time.
You probably will need to take it quite slow,
and you might expect a bit of protest
from your little one at eight months
because they are locked into a sleep habit,
and they're probably not gonna willingly give it up.
So, it's okay to use some hands-on settling
to get your baby to sleep,
because you're still wanting to reassure them
that you're there and that they're safe,
but they just need to relearn the sleep habit,
and relearning anything can come with a bit of a hiccup.
Another scenario which might be happening to you is
that your baby is actually falling asleep
in their own bed okay, but then during the night,
you're bringing them into your bed
because they're waking, and they're not going back to sleep.
At eight months there is a sleep regression anyway,
where we be do see a little bit more night waking,
as babies are going through some big developmental leaps.
That sleep regression can be quite short lived,
as long as no new sleep associations
are established during that time.
So if your baby is falling asleep in their own bed
and then, during the night,
you're bringing them in with you,
the simple solution to that is
to not bring them in with you.
If they're already used to sleeping
some of the night in their own bed,
then you can still continue in the way
that I previously described, where they're waking,
you can go into them,
you can do some hands-on settling to get them back to sleep,
and then just reduce the amount of settling
that you're giving them
over the course of a couple nights
through to a couple of weeks.
And that should see them through that regression period,
and hopefully they're happier
going back to sleep in their own beds.
I hope that's given you
a couple of strategies to work through,
depending on your situation with your baby.
Please, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel
and comment below
and let us know how your little ones are sleeping overnight.
We're happy to answer your sleep questions in the comments.
Thank you very much for watching,
and I'll talk to you again next week.