Naptime dilemma

[sh0rtchica]

My DS is 13 months and a great sleeper. He goes down for naps (still 2 a day) and to sleep at night with no tears and no fussing. problem is, he still naps in his baby swing

he absolutely HATES his crib. screams bloody murder if you put him in there, regardless of the reason or the time of day or if he's sleepy or not. so he naps in his swing and cosleeps at night. i was hoping he'd be more comfortable in his crib by the time he hit the weight limit on the swing (25lbs), but i'm afraid he's going to flip the darn thing before that happens.

he adores swinging (we don't even have batteries in it right now), and essentially swings himself to sleep. but he swings so hard that the legs raise off the floor. i'm thinking about taping it to the floor, but that's really just a temporary solution.

so, any ideas? i suppose he could nap in our bed, except it's really high, we don't have bed rails, and he's home with a nanny all day. i wouldn't necessarily be comfortable with her hanging out in my bedroom, either. i've brought up moving our mattress to the floor but DH is adamantly opposed. he doesn't like co-sleeping anyway and would be all about CIO if i didn't put my foot down.

[DahliaRW]

I would work with teaching your ds to get down off of heights feet first. Most kids can figure that out by that age. Then put him down on your bed (if he will) and pile up rolled blankets/pillows around the edges so he won't roll off when sleeping. Then if he wakes up he'll know how to safely get off. And make sure your room is babyproofed.

[sh0rtchica]

Originally Posted by DahliaRW

I would work with teaching your ds to get down off of heights feet first. Most kids can figure that out by that age. Then put him down on your bed (if he will) and pile up rolled blankets/pillows around the edges so he won't roll off when sleeping. Then if he wakes up he'll know how to safely get off. And make sure your room is babyproofed.

thanks for the suggestion i hadn't thought about starting that with him yet, i'm not sure how much he understands at this point. can you tell i'm new at this? lol. he's a bit behind in some motor skills (not walking yet and started army-crawling at 11 months), so it will probably be a while before we're there!

[Katie T]

You may be suprised, my DH started working on getting off the bed ( mattress on box spring on the floor) as soon as they became mobile. He would just scootch there butt around and slowly help them slide off the bed till they were sitting on the floor. This might not work depending on if he is too short and can't stand holding onto furniture.

You may also try taking the crib mattress and putting it on the floor and having the nanny lay next to him till he is sleeping and then she can leave the room ( just have it baby proofed of course).

[Louisep]

A video monitor alleviated my fears of ds sleeping alone in our bed (we also taught him how to get down backwards when only crawling, but it's a low bed).

Do you think he'll fall asleep on your bed?

[sh0rtchica]

he would sleep on our bed, i just worry about falling. a video monitor is a good idea! i pulled his crib mattress out of his crib and put it on the floor of his room. first nap today, he crawled off of it and fell asleep on his floor. second nap i had to nurse him down, and he's still asleep. not sure yet how the nanny will get him down since he doesn't take bottles, but it's a start! thanks ladies!

[hakeber]

Have you thought about putting a saftey rail on the bed? It was about that age that ds started hurling himself over the railing of his crib onto the floor with a crash. I started by laying him on a bed, and had a blow up mattress on the floor next to him with his dresser backed up across the top part of the bed in his room (I am not describing that well, am I?), but then I got a safety railing and it worked well. I'd lay him down, get him to sleep and then lift the railing...so much easier and he felt less caged in because he could climb down off the foot of the bed if he wanted to.

[Cujobunny]

You could take the mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor, maybe he will sleep on that?

Or what about walking him in a stroller to get him to sleep? That's what I had to do with both my kids at a certain point, but I was able to wheel them right in the house & let them stay in the stroller, taking them out would have woken them up & that would be the end of that nap.