I'll try to keep this short. In my son's 5.5 months here, he has gone from sleeping exclusively in his crib to sleeping part-time in his crib to completely cosleeping with me in the queen-sized bed across the hall. The full cosleeping worked for about 2 months. Now, however, his growing mobility and my lack of quality time with DH have prompted a need for a change. What I would like to do is have him sleep in his crib for naps and for the first part of the night so that I don't have to worry about him in the big bed by himself (as well as freeing the bed for us and making it possible for him to go to sleep for others). Unfortunately, he has gotten so used to not sleeping in his crib that he will NOT sleep there:
1. If I lie him in the crib awake, he will amuse himself for quite a few minutes, thinking he has been introduced to a new play environment. However, eventually the lack of toys and things gets a little boring and he cries for me to come and play with him.
2. If I lie him in down after he has fallen asleep on me (his usual nap spot, which doesn't allow me to get anything done), he immediately wakes up screaming as if he is being tortured!
3. If I do what I used to do to put him in the crib at night--nurse him to sleep on a receiving blanket and then transfer him, blanket and all, to the crib so as not to wake him up with temperature changes and to keep the smell of milk with him--he starts thrashing around, more and more violently, until he ends up banging his head on the crib bars or getting his feet stuck between the bars or wrapping the blanket tightly around his face and neck, at which point he cries for me to rescue him. Which is very scary, by the way, and I think I'm now going to have to stop with the blanket thing.
So how can I teach him that the crib is for sleeping and not for playing, thrashing, and screaming?
1. If I lie him in the crib awake, he will amuse himself for quite a few minutes, thinking he has been introduced to a new play environment. However, eventually the lack of toys and things gets a little boring and he cries for me to come and play with him.
2. If I lie him in down after he has fallen asleep on me (his usual nap spot, which doesn't allow me to get anything done), he immediately wakes up screaming as if he is being tortured!
3. If I do what I used to do to put him in the crib at night--nurse him to sleep on a receiving blanket and then transfer him, blanket and all, to the crib so as not to wake him up with temperature changes and to keep the smell of milk with him--he starts thrashing around, more and more violently, until he ends up banging his head on the crib bars or getting his feet stuck between the bars or wrapping the blanket tightly around his face and neck, at which point he cries for me to rescue him. Which is very scary, by the way, and I think I'm now going to have to stop with the blanket thing.
So how can I teach him that the crib is for sleeping and not for playing, thrashing, and screaming?
