He's getting his own room...now what?

[carochinha]

We're moving tomorrow and our nonstop, very active 11 month old is getting a room of his own. His crib has until now been in our bedroom. And somehow...for the past two months we've gotten into the pattern of putting him to sleep in our bed. My husband usually goes to bed early due to his early morning start, so this has not been disruptive for the adult sleep schedule. There were mornings my back punished me for not getting baby to sleep in his crib but there were more nights of being grateful and appreciative of having him so close to us.

So now what? More than likely, we'll try putting him to sleep in his crib, singing to him and staying a while, saying our key word "sleepy time" and then leaving. He will no doubt cry and we'll go back in after 5 minutes? Sooner? Then keep doing this at longer intervals until he surrenders? He has a bath, book and bedtime routine somewhere 7-8pm at night.

I think it's the physical contact and the soft bed that gets him down now, but it can sometimes take 30 - 60 minutes of playfully flailing limbs and cavorting before he is knocked out.

ANY advice is truly appreciated. Every child is different but how long will it take to get him to sleep in his room? Do I have the basic idea in mind? Anything we should do differently?

[SnuggleBuggles]

You might not have any crying and, if you do, there are people on the pro CIO side and others that are not. My thought would be to get something like a FP aquarium or rainforest crib toy to attach to the rails and maybe 1 or 2 other crib safe toys and put them on the rails in there. Again, like CIO some disagree with toys in the crib. I think they rock and the ability to play oneself to sleep has never been a problem around my house. Anyway, make the crib somewhere cool to be and let him explore. Sometimes we would start the night with ds2 in his crib but bring him to bed in the middle of the night. It might be an option if you don't want to CIO and want to introduce the crib but not go full out just yet.

Beth

[emily]

Not exactly your same situation but we moved when DD was about 10 months old. She slept in her crib by herself and was pretty much the perfect sleeper until the move. She had trouble adjusting to her new (bigger, less cozy) room and I got lazy and started to bring her into bed with us. Since then we have tried everything to get her back into her room. She is now 3 and we just recently started making some progress. She now sleeps in her requested purple room in her big girl bed BUT only if DH is sleeping there also (in a separate twin mattress on the floor). Our goal is to get DH out of her room by the time DS (21 mo) is in a toddler bed (and he realizes that big sister has been getting to sleep with mommy and daddy) and DC3 arrives in March. DS is a textbook perfect sleeper BTW.

So my advice? Whatever sleep training method you go with, dont give up! Be vigilant. It will suck for a little bit but it will be worth it at the end.

[carochinha]

Thanks,SnuggleBuggles and Emily for your replies. It sounds like it's the kind of thing we'll have to patient. My Mom is arriving in 5 days for a two week visit and I was hoping to have him adjusted by then. Oh, well!