12 months old- That was the age we were aiming for, following SIDS guidelines, to move Miss A into her own room. When she was born that felt like forever away.

We watched her go from a mattress insert inside the bassinet level of her portacot in our room, then in the bassinet level of the portacot, we then lowered the cot to its lowest level. Then she reached one year old which meant she had reached our target age for keeping her in our room.

I loved having her by my bed, waking to her funny little personality and also it made night and morning feeds a lot easier having her right by my side.

12 months on and it was time to transition her into her own room and into her big cot. Now we were happy to wean her into her own room if need be leaving her bed as an option in our room. She had slept in her room from about 1-2 months old in the day if we were home so it wasn’t as though she was unfamiliar with the area or bed.

First Night

Who was the saddest? ME! It was a realization she was no longer a little baby and was becoming a little kid. A little person with huge personality that didn’t need me as much anymore. This made me really sad. Slowly I am becoming less required due to weaning of breastfeeding and slowly moving her out of our room and into her own room. Almost expecting she would wake during the night and need to come back to our room, I put her to bed at the normal time.

She went in easily. No troubles at all and was pretty happy to be going down to sleep. She wriggled around a bit and made herself comfortable. Checking on her multiple times before I went to bed. Off to bed I went, feeling sad. It was such a weird feeling looking into her cot that is next to my bed and not seeing my little girl laying there with her hands behind her head as I had every other night for  a whole year.

She woke twice that night and my super sonic hearing kicked in. Now it was way more sensitive than usual and made me jump out of bed (which I NEVER do). She needed me. Well at least that was what my brain was telling me. I jumped up so fast to go check on her. A few little noises and little cries, she wriggled around and back to sleep she went. She was perfectly fine in her new bed. Back to sleep I went. Again a couple hours later I heard her cry. Up I jump. This time she was a bit more unsettled and needed more attention so I piked her up and gave her a cuddle and rocked her to sleep for a little while. We had a cuddle on the chair in her room. I lapped up this moment as I was sad about her no longer being by my side. Back to bed we both went, and she slept through an extra hour than usual. This new bed is amazing! Extra sleep of a morning, YAY, I will not complain about that.

Night Two

Earlier that day we got new blinds put in our bedroom so the portacot had to be moved. So we decided that with a change around of furniture it would make the room look better, but that also meant that the portacot had to be moved and in the end it was decided it was time to put it down, but left out in case we needed it to go back up

Miss A was a little more difficult to put down this time. However I don’t think it was due to the change of rooms but more so not ready for sleep when she was put to bed. Standing in her cot, walking laps around the cot in her sleeping bag. Eventually we got her down and without too much hassle. Again mummy was the one who was sad. Especially as this time when I got into bed not only was there no Miss A in my room, the cot that had been there more than a year was gone and my room was back looking as it was before I had her.

I was in two minds about this.

Sad- My baby had grown up and moved into her own room like a big girl. She was no longer a little baby anymore.

Happy- It was a really nice feeling having our room back for us. No cot, no baby stuff, just our room as it was before hand. It gave a little bit of ME time back. Time for us. Not that we had to turn lights off or be really quiet when she slept in our room but just gave us more space.

When did you move your child into their own room and how did you feel about it?

By Clare at Relaxed Parenting

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