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November 2024 Babies 🇬🇧

Will no longer sleep in next to me

Baby boy has just hit 6 months and will no longer sleep in his next to me crib. We have had no problems with him sleeping at night in there, he always has done since birth but now he will not be put down in it (give him a few minutes to settle but goes to full on meltdown very quickly) or wakes every 45 minutes. He will literally pass straight out if I pop him down on our bed for a moment (sometimes you just don’t pick them up comfortably out of the next to me first time), hold him in our arms, if husband takes him downstairs to give me a break (sleeping in pram bassinet but again has experienced popping him safely on the sofa next to him for a moment and he’ll nod off. To reiterate he is not left to sleep there and is not unattended, we are again talking for a minute or two while husband is getting comfortable so is barely taking any time at all to fall asleep), literally anywhere that is not his next to me. I assumed initially it was a comfort thing as he was teething (and I would hold him until he nodded off, we are gently moving away from rocking but will use it if we need to, like when poorly or teething) but it appears he doesn’t need to be held or rocked, it doesn’t matter which parent and will self settle in other places but can’t for the life of me work out what has changed about his next to me for him. There have been no environment changes- same room, same place, no changes to outside noise we can notice but he has his white noise machine on anyway. It has been warm this week with the weather but that hasn’t been for the whole period of time this has been a problem. Has anyone had this? I’m not sure what to do. Both husband and I are absolutely shattered and just want a night in our own bed so we can regroup and work out a plan of action. I’m not necessarily against co sleeping but also after 6 months of really not needing us to, I’m not sure I’m willing to start this? I wasn’t really ready to move him to his cot in his room yet but wondering if now that might be the best option? We could probably get his cot in our room but it would be tight. I’m just absolutely stumped as to what the problem is and so tired I can feel my patience going. It’s hard to say how long this has been going on for, sort of two weeks ish but the first 5 days like I say, I think was his teeth then it settled back to his ‘normal’ for 2 nights (8 hour stretch of sleep (bliss), bottle and back to bed for a few hours) then the second tooth made an appearance and it just keeps getting worse. It went from sleeping 8-12 fine, 12-3 waking every hour, sleeping 3-7ish to literally waking every 45 minutes from bedtime to 6-7am but his teeth are through now so while I appreciate still might be uncomfortable, I wouldn’t expect things to be getting worse. I’ve rambled a bit but hope I’ve got across why I’m confused. Given that he is self settling other places, it really does make me think he’s just decided he doesn’t like his next to me. If anyone has advice or any experience of this and could hazard a guess at what the problem is, it would be appreciated!