When our daughter was born, she slept in a bassinet beside our bed. I'd bring her into bed to nurse and fall asleep, so she often co-slept with us for hours. We transitioned her to a crib in her own room at 4 months. We had a nice routine going where she'd sleep in her crib from 7:00 to somewhere between 1:30 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. I'd bring her into our bed to nurse and she'd remain there until morning.
She also napped on our bed. I'd nurse her lying down and she'd go right to sleep.
At 5 months I went back to work and my husband is home with her. She also began teething. She is now 7 months old and often protests sleeping in her crib at night. (She's still usually okay in the crib for naps.) Five or six nights a week she'll sleep in her crib without protest from 7:00 p.m. until her first waking. Once she wakes up, all bets are off. She'll nurse and go back to sleep - until we try to put her down. As soon as her bum touches the crib, she wakes and starts slamming her legs into the mattress, rubbing her eyes and crying. She spits out her soother and is inconsolable until we pick her up. If we pick her up again, she'll instantly go back to sleep - until we try to put her down in the crib again. The other night I spent two hours doing this - picking her up and putting her down - before we finally got her to sleep in the crib.
We tried dressing her more warmly, flannel sheets in the crib, waiting varying lengths of time to catch her at the right stage of her sleep cycle, putting her in the crib during the day with toys to play. Nothing worked. It's a 1-2 hour ordeal to get her back to sleep in the crib after she wakes.
If, instead, I take her into our bed, she's asleep in five minutes with no fussing. We don't mind doing this after we've gone to bed, but since I went back to work she's been waking up for the first time between 9-11p.m. before we've gone to bed. (I think it's hunger because my milk supply is down.)
When she wakes up before we go to bed, I take her to our bed and lie down with her. When she's asleep - always in five minutes, no fussing - I surround her with pillows and get up. She'll stay asleep, but I worry about her falling off the bed. (She rolled off once already while sleeping between us when my husband got up in the night to use the washroom).
My preference would be to continue to have her sleep in her crib until the middle of the night feeding, but she's having none of it. My sister says we have to stop reinforcing the behaviour by taking her into our bed. We don't want to stop co-sleeping altogether, but can't figure out how to help her distinguish between when it's okay to be in our bed and when it's not. We considered only taking her into our bed when she's not crying - holding her until she sleeps, then taking her to our bed - so as not to reinforce the crying. I'm apprehensive about how many nights it would take to get her sleeping in the crib without crying. We've been doing it on and off for two months already.
Our second choice would be to have her sleep in our bed all night, if we can do so safely. My main concern is when she's alone in the bed. I am thinking we should put the mattress on the floor and get some more pillows to put around her - but what about when she's crawling? Won't she just crawl right over the pillows? We do have a monitor we can put in the room but we have a small house - I can usually hear her as soon as she wakes up, even without a monitor. Other than safety my other concern is I would like the option to be able to put her to sleep in her crib. I'm worried that if we move to our bed she will eventually refuse to sleep in the crib at all.
Those of you who are co-sleeping, how do you get your infants to continue accepting the crib?
She also napped on our bed. I'd nurse her lying down and she'd go right to sleep.
At 5 months I went back to work and my husband is home with her. She also began teething. She is now 7 months old and often protests sleeping in her crib at night. (She's still usually okay in the crib for naps.) Five or six nights a week she'll sleep in her crib without protest from 7:00 p.m. until her first waking. Once she wakes up, all bets are off. She'll nurse and go back to sleep - until we try to put her down. As soon as her bum touches the crib, she wakes and starts slamming her legs into the mattress, rubbing her eyes and crying. She spits out her soother and is inconsolable until we pick her up. If we pick her up again, she'll instantly go back to sleep - until we try to put her down in the crib again. The other night I spent two hours doing this - picking her up and putting her down - before we finally got her to sleep in the crib.
We tried dressing her more warmly, flannel sheets in the crib, waiting varying lengths of time to catch her at the right stage of her sleep cycle, putting her in the crib during the day with toys to play. Nothing worked. It's a 1-2 hour ordeal to get her back to sleep in the crib after she wakes.
If, instead, I take her into our bed, she's asleep in five minutes with no fussing. We don't mind doing this after we've gone to bed, but since I went back to work she's been waking up for the first time between 9-11p.m. before we've gone to bed. (I think it's hunger because my milk supply is down.)
When she wakes up before we go to bed, I take her to our bed and lie down with her. When she's asleep - always in five minutes, no fussing - I surround her with pillows and get up. She'll stay asleep, but I worry about her falling off the bed. (She rolled off once already while sleeping between us when my husband got up in the night to use the washroom).
My preference would be to continue to have her sleep in her crib until the middle of the night feeding, but she's having none of it. My sister says we have to stop reinforcing the behaviour by taking her into our bed. We don't want to stop co-sleeping altogether, but can't figure out how to help her distinguish between when it's okay to be in our bed and when it's not. We considered only taking her into our bed when she's not crying - holding her until she sleeps, then taking her to our bed - so as not to reinforce the crying. I'm apprehensive about how many nights it would take to get her sleeping in the crib without crying. We've been doing it on and off for two months already.
Our second choice would be to have her sleep in our bed all night, if we can do so safely. My main concern is when she's alone in the bed. I am thinking we should put the mattress on the floor and get some more pillows to put around her - but what about when she's crawling? Won't she just crawl right over the pillows? We do have a monitor we can put in the room but we have a small house - I can usually hear her as soon as she wakes up, even without a monitor. Other than safety my other concern is I would like the option to be able to put her to sleep in her crib. I'm worried that if we move to our bed she will eventually refuse to sleep in the crib at all.
Those of you who are co-sleeping, how do you get your infants to continue accepting the crib?
But when she was 18-24 months old, keeping the first round of sleep in the crib did seem to help.
Glad we got a free crib, cuz no baby sleepin' in it!
