persuading baby to sleep in Arm's Reach co-sleeper?

[kythryne]

My baby is almost a month old, and has been sleeping in our bed since birth. Most of the time it works great, but he's starting to get pretty mobile - he's been able to roll from his back to his side since he was a week old, and last night I woke up and found him sleeping on his belly. No matter where I put him in the bed, he can roll or scoot over to me in a matter of minutes, and when he gets to me he flails his arms and legs against my body and grabs at my breasts. He won't tolerate being swaddled, and he won't sleep in the Arm's Reach co-sleeper at all - even if we gently move him into it once he's deeply asleep, he wakes up and wails within 15 minutes. In our bed, he'll sleep for 3 - 5 hours at a stretch.

The past few nights have nearly driven me out of my skin. I have chronic pain problems that can be severely aggravated by touch, and on top of that I get severely triggered if someone grabs at me when I'm asleep. The past two nights I've had to hand him to my partner and leave the bed for several minutes before I could calm down enough to nurse him back to sleep. I'm deeply opposed to CIO, and very much want to be able to keep him in bed with us as much as possible, but it would be really good if he'd be willing to go in the co-sleeper for part of the night if I'm in a pain flare or particularly jumpy about being touched.

Any ideas for how I might start convincing him to sleep in the co-sleeper part of the time? We're having a little luck getting him to hang out in it and play during the day - we got him a mobile and some toys and he'll usually stare at them for long enough for me to run to the bathroom and get dressed. He will also occasionally nap in the swing or bouncy seat during the day, but usually only for about half an hour at a time. I know it's very early to be trying to establish any sort of sleep routine, but I suspect that this will only become more problematic for me over time, so I'd like to start gently working on it now.

[NoraFlood]

Bumping because I have the exact same question about my 6-week-old--

[Terrilein]

I must confess that I'm having the same difficulty getting ds to sleep in his sidecar, but I'm not desperate yet. Here are a few things I'll be trying when he turns into a bedhog:

• putting him down in the co-sleeper for naps - and make nap times a pleasurable experience with music, massage, whatever it takes for the baby to associate good feelings with sleeping in the co-sleeper.
• pre-warming the co-sleeper before putting him down to sleep in it
• putting something of mine in it that smells like me (t-shirt, blouse, etc)

Hopefully more moms can add their tips to this list.

Good luck, mama!

[summersmama]

i'm having the same issues.

my dd is almost 9 weeks, and has been in our bed. she wants to nurse ALL NIGHT LONG! if i try to move/change position during the night she wakes up and has a fit until she gets her booby back. i also have a co-cleeper and sometimes can get her in there for 2-3 hours, but only after she has fallen into a deep sleep. often i fall asleep waiting for her to deep sleep, and she never gets in the co-sleeper at all. it would be great if she could nurse and then just sleep in our bed, but as long as she isn't content without nursing, its causing me to lose sleep and have back/neck pain from being all crooked up in the same position all night.

we are going to buy an air purifier and try running that at night for the white noise. i remember this helping my first dd to sleep through the night. so maybe if i can get babe in the co-sleeper and then have white noise she will sleep longer. ???

interested in hearing others' advice...

thanks!

[JudiAU]

The arm's reach matress is so, so, so hard. Everyone I know who has used it successful has added some sort of padding. With my first I used a standard coutored changing pad fitted into it (long story)), with my second I bought an aftermarket natural latex replacement matress. My sister wrapped several bath towels around hers and then some blankets, making sure they were snug.

You also consider getting rid of the co-sleeper and side-carring a crib. GIve him more room and a more comfortable place to sleep.