[Sunnycat]

So my DS is a beyond shocking sleeper. I am working on it but it's been a slow process with little result so far.

Our second child is due in July.

Currently DS and I share a bed.

We can fit a cot in our room. I really, truly don't want to bed share with both kids and I especially am not comfortable bed sharing with a newborn.

We've had so many problems with DS's sleep that I want to try and do things different next time.

So I was thinking of putting the baby in its own room from day one. Our house is tiny so the room is right next door.

Just looking for some advice.

Should I try and get DS back into a cot in a separate room before hand? I don't even have a cot at the moment.

or
should I leave DS in bed with us and side car a cot to the foot of the bed and have the baby sleep in there? I am concerned about the baby waking my already frequent waking ds. I think one of the ways i ****ed up ds is by not letting him cry and feeding him when he became unsettled instead of waiting a few minutes before he went back to sleep.

Or should I keep DS in my bed and then put the baby in another bedroom and then one day hope that DS and his new siblings will share a room and bed.

ETA my biggest concern with DS being woken by the baby is that he only resettles with boob (I'm working on that) and I don't want to have to feed him back to sleep and try to settle the baby at the same time.
Any suggestions?

This post has been edited by Sunnycat: 08/01/2013, 11:03 PM

[VintageEyes]

My DS is a shocking sleeper. When I waspregnant we started co sleeping because I was too tired to keep putting him back to bed.

DD is in a cot in our room (as was ds when he was born) and most nights DS ends up in our bed. DS very rarely got woken by dd and if he did he was straight back to sleep snyway.

DD won't settle before 11ish but then she will only wake up maybe once or not at all. I do exactly the same with her as I did with ds. I just think some kids are bad sleepers and theres not much you can do about it.

[Jaffacakes]

Both my elder kids have been in their own room from pretty much day 1 (although we had a breathing monitor for both to reassure me.)

This bub will have to room in with us for a while (I'm not quite sure how that will go!), then it will either share with a sibling or get its own room (probably when aged around 6 months unless we can't handle it earlier). DS also currently co-sleeps with us (well for second half of the night anyway). I think our current plan is just to let DS go along as per normal and shift the baby around if having them in our room is problematic (they really will be too little to know what is going on, whereas unless I can magically "cure" DS sleeping issues in the next few months, I do not want to be trying to deal with him in the middle of the night as well as a newborn).

[axiomae]

You don't say how old your DS is, but I would be assuming that he is a toddler and would have some language and ability to be reasoned with. Perhaps you could set up a room for him and start telling him that when the baby comes this is where he will sleep because he's a big boy etc... only babies sleep in the bed etc. Maybe being woken by a newborn will see him want to go into his room! You could always have DH transition him when you stay in the hospital after the birth which would involve settling him without boob.

Just thoughts - my DD is a pretty good sleeper so my heart goes out to you.