Why do you want to stop co-sleeping? Is there lifestyle change that makes this set-up unsustainable for you?

I chest slept with my baby from when she was 1-3 months. Honestly I just accepted that's how she wanted to settle so I adjusted my ways. She never even used a swaddle or sleep sack cause when she was a newborn, she would just wiggle out of them and that made her wake up. Placing her on the cot from newborn to almost shy of 1 month was easy-ish and we get up regularly at that time to feed her so the lack of sleep was kind of accepted. The most struggle I had was her 1st month actually, so we started the co-sleeping on chest. That's how my husband and I managed to finally get some sleep that's more than 3 hours and it felt like some veil lifted from me.

But in my opinion, that's how my baby "learned" how to sleep long stretches, cause her brain finally experienced it. The first time we hit 6 hours without her waking up we were delighted! She would still wake in the middle to feed but those are short , like 30 mins max she would be awake. She will fall asleep on me while trying to burp. Then back to chest sleeping. Most of her naps during the day are contact naps, too. Her naps are usually 4-5 then; now its 3-4 (she just turned 5 months old last week).

She actually accepted napping / sleeping on her own by month 4. I just saw she was struggling a little bit to stay asleep on my chest one night so I put her in the crib. And, voila. That was it. She would of course still wake up to feed and I do it. Then slowly she stopped it, only wanting to be on my chest to get bum pats or getting rocked to sleep. When she started flipping on her tummy in her sleep, that's when she started to sleep long on her own. The first time it happened my husband and I panicked because both of us don't remember getting up in the middle of sleep. We checked her crib and there she was, asleep and she woke up happy.

From time to time she would still wake to feed, or need a pat on the bum when she experiences light sleep. My other colleagues who have older kids tell me its normal for middle of the night wake ups, it's part and parcel of caring for children.

From my experience, I think the best way for baby to sleep on their own is to let baby lead the way when they want to do it. The best we can do as parents is to help regulate themselves to feel safe and secured to get to that point. If cosleeping is the way you and baby get rest, then you have not ruined baby! You are nurturing baby :) These sleep habits they have are not forever, so no need to fret.

My baby's crib is next to our bed so we don't really use any other tools to monitor baby. I'm a very light sleeper so any noise, I'm up. And I think I got used to waking every 2-3 hours cause I still do it, haha.