Hi, all -
I've been reading the boards for a while, but this is my first post. I hope you can help me! My baby is 3 months old (in 1 week) and we've been doing "accidental parenting" in the sleep department. He's been sleeping in the bed with me in a co-sleeper (Snuggle Nest, in the bed but his own separate space) for nighttime sleep since birth. He takes naps in his crib fine, normally being laid down awake and going to sleep on his own (although the past couple of days he's not wanted to do that - I think it's the 12 week developmental leap approaching!) and
I think he's becoming aware enough of where he is now that we need to move him into either his own bassinet in our room, or his own crib in his own room - otherwise I think we're setting ourselves up for an even HARDER transition down the road.
He generally wakes 3 times in the night for feedings still; he has one 5 hour stretch at the beginning of the night, then twice 3 hours apart; he goes right back to sleep without much if any intervention from me at night - I just swaddle him, lay him down, and go back to sleep myself.
Would it be better to transition him gradually (out of bed into bassinet but still in room with us, then into crib in a month or so) or is that making him and us go through TWO hard transitions instead of 'ripping the bandaid off quickly'? I'm leaning towards getting him into his own room now, before he's old enough to be scared of being alone...
And how exactly do I do this transition? Just prepare myself for 3-4 nights of no sleep and LOTS of PU/PD?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give - I don't want to make my accidental parenting worse than it already is, so I really want to do this right!
Heath