When Should I Move My Baby Over To Their Nursery?

Moving your baby into their own room can feel like a tricky decision – mostly because it can really vary from family to family! The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends that you actually keep your baby in your room until they’re 12 months old. So if you’re looking for a textbook answer, you would move your baby into their nursery when they turn 1.

But, if you are feeling like you are sensitive to your baby’s sleeping or they are keeping YOU up, then you can move your baby into their nursery sooner.

Personally, I moved my own babies into their nursery within the first few months. Newborns spend 50% of their sleep-time in REM sleep (rapid-eye movement). This sleep stage is very active. They can let out little grunts and groans, cries, and even wiggling around a lot. All of these things for a new mom, are really disturbing.

Nathan slept great the whole time, me…not so much haha!

I was responding to every little sound with a feeding because I figured that if I could already hear them then, it meant they would wake soon regardless. This led to me being SO exhausted in the morning because I had gotten up so many times throughout the night.

What’s the right answer?

So, to answer the question of “when should I move my baby to their own room” – the answer is actually a personal one because I want YOU to feel comfortable with them sleeping in their room.

One thing to note is that if you are room-sharing with your child, you need to respect their sleep environment. They are likely going to bed much earlier than you are, so when you go into the room to get ready to sleep, you’re not turning the light on, turning off their sound machine, or turning the TV on to watch a show. You’re keeping it as dark and quiet as possible so not to disturb that sleeping baby. Disturbing your baby’s sleep will also heavily impact your sleep. Having your child room-share with you is a commitment that I want you to be aware of.

There is a common misconception around sleep training and room-sharing and that it’s not possible, but that is a myth. It is absolutely possible to both room-share and sleep train! The 2 are not exclusive, they can coexist.

Once you have the nursery up and you have a plan to move to your child into their room, I want you to make this change at bedtime. It’s important to always make big changes to any sleep environment at bedtime vs nap-time because of sleep pressure. Sleep pressure is the biological need to sleep. Sleep pressure is highest at the end of the day after having periods of awake time. We never want to make big changes at nap-time because of the lack of sleep pressure built up.

A few things to help with the transition would be:

A Video Monitor. This helps with night wakings and night feedings and gives parents peace-of-mind with being able to

An Owlet Sock. It monitors your baby’s breathing and heart rate so you can sleep with peace of mind, knowing that if anything were to happen, you’d get an alarm right away for you to go and check in on them.

These 2 things aren’t necessary, but they can help give you peace of mind that your child is safe and cozy in their room.

It’s always best to have a plan for when you want to move your child over to their own room. I recommend having a safe sleep space (crib or pack n play), a blacked-out environment, and a noise machine. That’s it! Super simple.

When did you move your child over to their own room?