Baby’s Big Move – Ollie Starts Sleeping In His Own Room!

This week baby Oliver took a big step… he moved into his own bedroom to sleep at night!

With Jess preparing to go back to work in a few weeks, and Ollie’s body getting longer and longer, staying in the bassinet wasn’t going to be an option much longer. And the only real move to make was to get him into the crib in his own room and see what happened.

We started the experiment on Monday night (after watching WWE Monday Night Raw as a family) and had the little dude in a weighted sleep sack over his pjs. We hadn’t had him in the weighted sack much before this, but thought that it may offer him an extra layer of comfort for his big move.

Note: We were worried that this move to the crib and his bedroom wasn’t going to go well because Oliver has not napped well in his room so far. His naps haven’t seemed to be as long in there, and when he has woken up, there’s been no option of soothing himself back to sleep because he’s gone to instant “I’m all alone in here and I don’t like it, someone come get me” mode.

On Monday and Tuesday night we decided that we’d ease him into sleeping his room a little bit by putting his baby box in the crib. We know that he’s good in the box, and we hoped that if he were to wake up in the night, he’d feel some familiarity and settle back in.

Related: Parenting Tip – Get The Baby Box!

It worked.

Both Monday and Tuesday nights he slept until about 3:30 am (with 11pm-ish bed times after last feed with mommy) and then was awake to eat. Both Jess and I were happy with that result.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I started the night sleeping in Ollie’s room. We dropped the futon down into bed mode, put together a makeshift night table, plugged in a lamp and my phone charger, and made it work.

In hindsight, we probably didn’t need to. But, as first-time parents it just felt more soothing to us for one of us to be in there with him.

Wednesday night was night #3 in his bedroom, but night #1 in the crib without the baby box.

It worked too.

Ollie was super tired early on Wednesday night (to the point that he didn’t eat at what would regularly be his last feed of the day at about 9:30 pm) so we were worried that he would be awake earlier to eat. We were wrong. The little guy passed right out, stayed sleeping and settled, and didn’t wake up to eat until about 4:45 am. It was a much longer stretch than either of us anticipated, and were happy for it.

Thursday and Friday nights we cleared another hurdle, leaving him alone in the crib and both sleeping in our room.

I was in Toronto at the Budweiser Country Throwdown at the Rock ‘N’ Horse Saloon, so Jess handled bedtime on her own. He got into his pjs, ate, cuddled, and Jess put him down in the crib, turned on the sleep sheep and baby monitor, and went to bed. I got home just after 1 am on both nights, and he was fast asleep, and Jess was comfy in our room. And when Ollie woke up, Jess heard him through the monitor, got up to feed him, and all was calm and right with the world.

Budweiser Country Throwdown Thursday Night with The Reklaws, Emily Reid, and Jade Eagleson
Budweiser Country Throwdown Friday Night with Andrew Hyatt, Eric Ethridge, and Leah Daniels

At 11 weeks old, and not a fan of his crib in the daytime, we really weren’t sure how this whole thing was going to go down. But after 6 nights there have been no real problems (Saturday night he needed some extra cuddles on the futon with me before I could get him fast asleep and transferred to the crib) and we’re hoping that the trend continues.

Our little guy is getting bigger. And while we might joke about him “growing up so fast”, this really does feel like a step that leads to a lot of other steps in the future.

I am proud of Jess and I for sticking to it and not just grabbing him and bringing him back to our room for our own comfort. And I’m proud of Oliver for being a good sleeper in a new space and allowing his mommy and daddy to start settling into a new routine.

Stay tuned to see what comes next.

Bonus: Here are some photos of Ollie and I being adorable with Snapchat filters. Enjoy!