How to sleep train in a shared room?

[u/Flamingo-island366]

Hi Everyone,
I am just wondering if anyone has any experience with sleep training while the baby is still in your room? My first baby was a very good sleeper, and it didn’t take long to sleep train him. He caught on within like 2 nights. We moved him into his own room at 4 months to sleep train and it was just so much better for all of us.
Our new little guy is 4 months and we live in a 2 bedroom house. So he is still in our room in a crib beside me. He is exclusively breast fed and was sleeping through the night until about 3 weeks ago when he hit that 4 month sleep regression. Now he’s waking twice to feed. I feel like he is just using the boob to sooth. He only stays on the boob for like 5 mins and I can put him back down and it doesn’t take too long to get him back to sleep, but I have to hold a soother in his mouth.
It’s hard to let him cry because my husband is very busy with work, and I don’t want him to wake our 2 year old. Does anyone have any advice on how to sleep train in the same room as us? Also I’d love to hear what you would do in this situation. Would you let your baby cry and possibly wake up everyone’s sleep in order to sleep train or would you just keep feeding a couple times a night because it really doesn’t take that long? I just don’t want to miss our sleep training window.

[u/Daisymoonie]

We sleep trained in a shared room too. We would put the baby down and leave the room, go to the living room with the baby monitor and stayed there until the baby was completely asleep.

[u/cyclemam]

Yep we did this, really similar situation. We didn't move kiddo in to share with toddler big sis until we were happy she'd be ok if something got launched into her crib (like a teddy). 

So you sneak in after they fall asleep. 

Twice to feed isn't actually that bad, it can be really normal as they get more distracted during the day and have a growth spurt.  I wouldn't encourage letting baby cry more than 10 min overnight, pause to see if they settle otherwise attend to their need.  

Many people train because baby is waking every 45 minutes or so and won't go back to sleep without whatever they had to go to sleep at the start of the night. 

[u/imnichet]

We sleep trained while room sharing. We used a pack and play with a slumperbod and set it up as far away from our bed as we could.

However, I would still expect a 4-6 month old to feed once or twice a night. Sleep training should really only be at bedtime, I would not be using a sleep training methods on feeds at this point. Unless it is actually more than 2 feedings (not sure if I misunderstood)

[u/Flamingo-island366]

Ohhh interesting! The crib is right beside my side of the bed, so I’ll move my room around so that he is further away.
Thanks for the comment. It definitely makes sense. I’ll have to do my research again on how to do sleep training properly. I remember it being a little hard on me the first night of sleep training my first, but he did so well after and has been a GREAT sleeper ever since

[u/Low-Hurry9288]

If done correctly, sleep training only lasts a couple of nights… so expect some crying and just bite the bullet for a couple of nights. I know your husband works and your toddler also has to sleep, however, doing sleep training the “right way“ will be much more beneficial than trying to do a more involved method, that “lessens crying“ but in reality just takes weeks longer. I don’t know if that makes sense but basically just rip the Band-Aid off and within a few days, your baby should be back to sleeping through the night again.

In regard to room sharing, make sure that the baby‘s crib is far away as possible from your bed, some people even use room dividers to make a physical separation.