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We co-slept from around I think 10 months - 20 months (not sure 100% but something like that). But we co-slept on a floor bed in LO's room, which I think helped transition easier because he was already accustomed to sleeping in his room on his own bed. When we decided not to co-sleep, we would stay with him until he fell asleep, then sneak out. If he woke up in the middle of the night, we would go in and sleep with him for the rest of the night. We did this for maybe a week or so and then one night he just slept the whole night by himself. We made sure he wasn't able to get out of the floor bed by himself by encasing the bed with a plastic playard fence.

I don't know exactly what we did to make the transition easy for us and him. But it only took a week and now he sleeps by himself on the same floor bed in his room all night. I think the "secret" for us was that as SOON as he woke up, we would quickly go in his room and soothe him. I think for us, it was about building trust, that he's not alone and that we will always be there anytime he needs us.

@miss-spunkin: Before 10 months he slept in his crib! At around 10 months, he wouldn't go to sleep without us being in his room (we were laying down on the floor) so we thought it would be easier to just bring a floor mattress into his room. Ever since then, he wanted to sleep on it with one of us. Our "intimate" time was right after he fell asleep. We would wait til he fell asleep, then sneak out to watch TV, intimate time, whatever...and then one of us would go to sleep with him for the rest of the night. In hindsight, we probably didn't need to go BACK and sleep with him. We were just worried that he would wake up and be freaked out that nobody was there. At 20 months, we thought "Eh. Let's give it a try." so we decided not to sneak back in. After a week, he was totally cool with it. LOL.

What's your situation now? How old is your LO and what does he do if you're not sleeping next to him?

@miss-spunkin: Oh, he's a little guy! Cute! I thought he was a toddler for some reason. Ok, so we did co-sleep from 1 month to 3 months (totally forgot about this) because BFing was so much easier this way. Then we transitioned him to his crib and he slept in it until 10 months.

Sorry, this is kinda long but thought I'd share what worked for us. So what we did to transition him from co-sleeping to crib at 3 months was to do a gentle sleep training. We used modified Baby Whisperer methods but there are many other methods to use and try so depends on the baby and depends on how you feel about CIO methods. He probably feels safe and secure sleeping near you (who wouldn't be right?) so I think the key is to make him feel safe and secure in the crib. We laid him down on the crib (and of course he would HATE it) and patted him and shushed him. If he was CRAZY fussy, we picked him up and rocked/shushed until he began to feel drowsy. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. We never left the room until he fell asleep. It was TIRING as heck but the end result was worth it. If he woke up in the middle of the night, we promptly (like within 5 seconds) went to his room to let him know/feel "Mommy and Daddy are here. We heard you. Don't worry, we're here" and then repeated the above. Eventually (maybe in a week or 2) he would go down and fuss for like 10 minutes and then fall asleep.

There were a lot more things that went into it but those are the basics.

Have you read any of the sleep training books? I read probably 3 or 4 of them and decided to try the Baby Whisperer method because I didn't want to do a full on CIO method. But some parents swear by CIO.

@miss-spunkin: My LO would wake up whenever I put her down after nursing her.. which is why I started nursing lying down. It worked well for us!

@miss-spunkin: I never read the no-cry sleep solution. Would love to hear your thoughts on that one and whether it works for you or not. Since every baby is so different, I can't assume the same methods will work for my 2nd baby (coming in 3 months!). We're going to try the same method as before but if it doesn't work, I'd love to have something else in my backpocket that doesn't involve full on CIO (I'm also a fan of gentle sleep training).

@miss-spunkin: As soon as your LO falls asleep, just slowly unlatch your nipple from his mouth and carefully crawl out of bed. Does he have a crib? If you can get a floor mattress for him, you may actually get him to sleep on his own for a bit!

@miss-spunkin: yay! So awesome! Is he in the arms reach sleeper or on a mattress? We watched our baby monitor like crazy in the early weeks and months! It was a must have! Hopefully your Lo will continue to sleep well so you can get stuff done and have some quality time with your Dh!

I coslept for about 10 months, but in my son's room on a bed in there. I finally had enough because we were both sleeping terribly and we sleep trained. I felt at 10 months he was more mature and ready for it, where at 4 months there was no way he was able to self soothe.

Good luck!

@miss-spunkin: YAY! I was thinking about you before I went to bed last night! We got a cheapie monitor because we just wanted something that would get the job done. Didn't need anything fancy.

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Night-Monitor-Screen/dp/B001N44UVC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1333635440&sr=8-8

It's been working well for us for over a year now!