Help/Advice re: sleeping in crib

[marikai]

Please help!
Our baby now needs to learn to take naps in her crib since she is very mobile and it is no longer safe for her to nap in our bed (she is now 9 months old). The problem is...everytime I put her in the crib, she wakes up. I try leaving her there to see if she will fall asleep on her own but she just gets more and more upset and will not go to sleep. Does anyone out there have any suggestions or advice from their own experiences with this?

[Mrsboyko]

Lay a heating pad in the crib to warm the matteress, remove it before putting her in.
Do you have a rice sock? Warm it a little then lay it on his back or belly as a weight (it makes them feel like you have a hand on her).
Does she sleep on her belly? Many kids sleep better on their belly and at 9 months old the risk of SIDS is basically null.
Swaddle her arms as you rock or nurse her to sleep so there is less of an adjustment when you lay her down.

[marikai]

Thank you...I do make sure her crib is nice and warm...I'm afraid she grew out of being swaddled a long time ago so I don't think that will work...

[Baby_Cakes]

My DD would never go down easily into the crib either. I had some luck with rocking her to sleep, then swiftly setting her down. The trick was to place my right hand under her arm, and my left hand on her tush and - swoop - down onto her tummy. If she didn't wake up on the way down, we were good. if she did, I'd give it another try or two. It was a lot of work. I honestly gave up on it after a few months b/c it was so frustrating. I just made sure she was surrounded by pillows on our bed and got a good baby monitor.

I hope you have better luck than I did!

[Everrgreen]

When DS became mobile he started taking his naps on a mattress on the floor in his own room. It's a double size mattress, so plenty of room for me to lie down with him, nurse him to sleep, and then I quietly sneak away. The room is baby-proofed just in case, but I always hear him when he wakes up anyway. And actually if I'm not with him he won't crawl off the mattress - but he does when I'm with him so I know he can do it, he just doesn't... Kind of weird

[Tee25]

[Mrsboyko]

Originally Posted by marikai

Thank you...I do make sure her crib is nice and warm...I'm afraid she grew out of being swaddled a long time ago so I don't think that will work...

You know what, I thought that with my DS also. He has been having issues staying asleep at night so I took my own advice and attempted a swaddle with him and it totally helped. It did look ridiculous, but it worked....

[justKate]

Originally Posted by Mrsboyko

You know what, I thought that with my DS also. He has been having issues staying asleep at night so I took my own advice and attempted a swaddle with him and it totally helped. It did look ridiculous, but it worked....

Might be worth a try. Not reccomending this, but DD has only crawled out of our bed once and that was the one time Huz turned off the closet light that I leave on for her.

Is your bed high enough that the LO would actually hurt himself if he were to fall out?

Oh! The other thing we do sometimes is nurse her down on a big (thin) quilted pad and then move the pad/baby/light blanket all in to the crib at the same time to keep the temperature consistent.

[Beauchamp]

Originally Posted by justKate

The other thing we do sometimes is nurse her down on a big (thin) quilted pad and then move the pad/baby/light blanket all in to the crib at the same time to keep the temperature consistent.

nak...please tell me about this..do you and your DP each hold two corners and lift her like she's in a hammock, or do you hold her body for support?

[Erinz]

We put our mattresses on the floor when our babes get to the age where they roam. I can't imagine trying to get a bed baby into a crib? That's beyond me so I can't offer any help there but what about taking your frame and box spring out? Makes the bed nice and close to the ground and just so much easier for nursing and sneaking away.

[pixiekisses]

Make your bed safe for her. We have a wall-to-wall bed (300 cm., walls on three sides) and when we have mobile babies we put another matress on the 4th side. And it's not the highest bed either 'coz we took the legs off.