Does anyone have a LO who refuses to sleep not in motion/on their backs?

[Laurski]

I know, a long title, but I think it pretty much sums it up...

From birth, E has resisted sleeping on her back, unless she is next to me or being held by me or DH.  About 2 months ago, when she was around 3 months, we discovered if we swaddled her, put her in the swing, and put on some white noise, she'd nap.  She'll also start the night in the swing (an hour or two) but then wake up and refuse to go back to sleep...which means that some nights I'm in bed with her as early as 9:30.  (We have a sidecarred cosleeper...she won't deign to sleep in that, even if I'm in bed.  It's next to mama, or nothing! )

I guess I'm just wondering who else has a similar sleeper...and wondering if/when s/he grew out of it.  I'd love to be able to put E down in the sidecarred cosleeper earlier in the evening, then join her later in bed.

Anyway...just curious as to whether other folks out there have similarly particular babes...

[Knitting Mama]

Well, Cecilia started life only sleeping on me. Nobody else, just me. By about 3 months I could put her in the swing swaddled and she'd nap. When her swing crapped out around 8 months I transitioned her to sleeping in the bed (still swaddled), and she did it, but only on her tummy. So that's how she sleeps now. She sleeps every night in my arms, by the way, and has since birth.

[octobermom]

 The only way my current slept on her back was swaddled and in her fisher price cradle rocker onces shes was out of that it was tummy..

 Lately shes taken to starting off her naps sitting up and playing with her doll... then at some point shes jsut kinda leans foward and starts snoozing 

Deanna 

[Laurski]

Aimee--It sounds like E and Cecilia are similar sleepers!  E started life out sleeping on me...although she would also sleep on Daddy sometimes.  I'm curious--how did you transition her to sleeping on the bed?  One of my huge fears is the swing crapping out and me having to push her swing for the entirety of her nap...

Octobermom--that might just be the cutest thing ever!

[mra]

Julia also sleeps on me at night, on my stomach. I can't get her to fall asleep on her back. Sometimes during the day I can set her down on her back but she wakes up quickly. Right now she is napping on me. I've been able to put her down to nap on her side and stomach.

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by Laurski 

Aimee--It sounds like E and Cecilia are similar sleepers!  E started life out sleeping on me...although she would also sleep on Daddy sometimes.  I'm curious--how did you transition her to sleeping on the bed?  One of my huge fears is the swing crapping out and me having to push her swing for the entirety of her nap...

Octobermom--that might just be the cutest thing ever!

It actually wasn't a big deal. I was expecting it to be a huge nightmare. I think maybe she just had matured enough that she could handle it. At first, I was putting her down on her back and she wasn't sleeping great. But then one day she flipper herself over (in her swaddle, the little gymnast!) and suddenly slept a thousand times better. I hope it's as easy for you as it was for me!

My only concern is when I wean her off the swaddle. I want to be sure she knows how to safely get off the bed before she's unswaddled so she doesn't crawl off the edge!

[SamiPolizzi]

M is the same way. The first week of so he slept so much I could plop him down on his back and he'd sleep, but very soon, he HAD to be held to sleep... He won't sleep in the swing, or bouncy chair. Just in our arms or the car. Just recently, when he hit 4 months, I've been able to get him to sleep 1-2 hours in the crib on his tummy, but after that he needs to be next to or on me. He nurses most of the night.... my hope is to get that first stretch in the crib longer...

[sk8boarder15]

Once again my sister didn't log out! That me! /\ 

[Monarchgrrl]

DD won't sleep on her back. No way, no how! And she won't sleep on her stomach. She'll only nap swaddled, laying on her side either on one of us or sometimes in a swing, swaddled, on her side. She will sleep on her side next to me in bed but we both get so sweaty and she stirs much more and I can't sleep. Once we switched her to swaddled and in her swing (still on her side), she'll sleep 10-11 hours straight every night. I just hope she gives up the swing on her own once she's bigger. We might switch to a baby hammock (the kind that bounces automatically) once she's more mobile and the swing isn't safe anymore.

[octobermom]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

Originally Posted by Laurski 

Aimee--It sounds like E and Cecilia are similar sleepers!  E started life out sleeping on me...although she would also sleep on Daddy sometimes.  I'm curious--how did you transition her to sleeping on the bed?  One of my huge fears is the swing crapping out and me having to push her swing for the entirety of her nap...

Octobermom--that might just be the cutest thing ever!

It actually wasn't a big deal. I was expecting it to be a huge nightmare. I think maybe she just had matured enough that she could handle it. At first, I was putting her down on her back and she wasn't sleeping great. But then one day she flipper herself over (in her swaddle, the little gymnast!) and suddenly slept a thousand times better. I hope it's as easy for you as it was for me!

My only concern is when I wean her off the swaddle. I want to be sure she knows how to safely get off the bed before she's unswaddled so she doesn't crawl off the edge!

 
We found slee

we found sleep sacks helped a lot at that stage... MAtter of fact I think I should start looking for some....

Deanna 

[Knitting Mama]

Good idea, we have one, I think. The only worry I have is that she's a petite girl, and a few friends with smaller babies have reported that their babies learned how to crawl inside the sleep sack! But we'll see.

[coffeegirl]

Mine is the same. She falls asleep great on me or when held, but she WILL sleep independently. Her first couple months she slept on her back or side. But over the past month or two we've found that she sleeps so, so much better and for MUCH longer (like, all night long!) on her tummy. In her crib. For naps she just falls alseep anywhere and everywhere....again, mostly on her tummy. Se we always put her to sleep now on her tummy.

We do keep a watchful eye on her and at night we have a baby monitor so I can hear every slightest sound she makes, across the hall in my room. :)

[MacKinnon]

My DD, 5 months on Sunday, won't "sleep down" either. She sleeps in my arms/sling, in bed next to me or in her car seat. ONLY. I will admit to getting a little desperate to get her to sleep down, alone, for a few. I realized I hadn't tried recently, because once she falls asleep, I detest the notion of putting her down, and her waking up, and trying to get her back to sleep, etc. So, I started trying again, and I'm pleased that I've gotten as much as 20 minutes.... She's an excellent co-sleeper, I can get her to sleep 100% of the time by laying down with her but I can't always do that. We're working on it! All I want is like an hour long nap.

[octobermom]

 
sorry double post....

[octobermom]

 
My Cecilia wa

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

Good idea, we have one, I think. The only worry I have is that she's a petite girl, and a few friends with smaller babies have reported that their babies learned how to crawl inside the sleep sack! But we'll see.

Yea my Cecilia was a petite one also and techinally yes she could crawl in it.. It was just enough of a deterence though.. We still worked on teaching her to scooch her self off the beds and such but they helped...  Around a year though was the age we'd discover her after say a nap or such in the oddest places...

My Cecilia sometime around a year old she had started out napping on our bed....

 

[Laurski]

Thanks for all the replies, mamas!  It's good to know that the Bean isn't the only babe out there with definite ideas about sleeping that *don't* include laying on her back in the cosleeper.  Some of my friends with babies sometimes look at my like I'm crazy when I talk about her sleep habits (although they're the same ones who have a different philosophy of getting a baby to sleep than I do, so that may be why...).

Has anyone used a baby hammock to help their LOs sleep?  The Kanoe looks intriguing, but it's a pretty penny, and I'm not sure I want to dish out the cash without knowing that it's worked for people...

[rhiOrion]

L (10 months) will sleep on her back, but only in our bed with her head on my pillow, and with me in bed with her generally.  Otherwise it's the swing.  Luckily she's small so the swing will work for a while longer!  Carriers also work well, especially when combined with an exercise ball.

[coffeegirl]

Originally Posted by Laurski 

Thanks for all the replies, mamas!  It's good to know that the Bean isn't the only babe out there with definite ideas about sleeping that *don't* include laying on her back in the cosleeper.  Some of my friends with babies sometimes look at my like I'm crazy when I talk about her sleep habits (although they're the same ones who have a different philosophy of getting a baby to sleep than I do, so that may be why...).

Has anyone used a baby hammock to help their LOs sleep?  The Kanoe looks intriguing, but it's a pretty penny, and I'm not sure I want to dish out the cash without knowing that it's worked for people...

Yeah, your Bean isn't unique in his sleep habits. ;) You know, it's funny because my mom and I were talking about this just a couple weeks ago. I was telling her how I always tried to get Annie to sleep on her back because of the "Back to Sleep" campaign (to reduce the risk of SIDS) that was drilled into me at the hospital. My LO was in the NICU for 4 weeks so I had to sit through classes and everything about it. But when we discovered her preference was for tummy-sleeping, it was like a whole new baby, sleeping-wise anyhow! My mom said that it makes sense because she always put her kids on their tummies....apparenlty back in the day it's just what everyone did because a.) kids just tend to sleep better that way, and b.) they thought it was safer....the thinking was that if the baby spit up in her sleep she'd be less likely to choke on it.

Nowadays the SIDS thing has overruled the old thinking...but I think if you're careful about it, it's not a big deal. I can't even tell you the difference that letting my girl sleep on her stomach has made for us! It's also made "tummy time" something that she looks forward to....in fact when we put her down toplay it's almost always on her stomach. At her last check-up the doctor was very impresssd with how well she held her head and shoulders up, and how good-natured she was about it. She said most of the babies she saw cried when they were forced on their tummies at the doctor's office.
 

ETA: several of you have mentioned your babies sleeping in "the swing"....what is this exactly?

 

[luckiest]

DS slept on his back for about a week, after that it was tummy or nothing.  I think it just seems more natural for babies to tummy sleep...I mean, when they fall asleep on you their tummies are in contact, backs exposed.  And don't they just look more comfortable?

I reconcile it with the SIDS stuff with the fact that I breastfeed (biggest SIDS preventer...where's that campaign?), we keep a fan on in our room, and he's almost always sleeping on or against me so he can feel my breathing.

[Peace+Hope]

hey ya'll, i'm a DDC pal of Cecelia's Mama, and she alerted me to this thread because she's seen me talk about the Kanoe Hammock.  I have one!  I thought i'd like it better than a crib, no sheets, no mattress, i liked the idea of the baby being able to bounce himself.  i have to say i've had ups and downs with the kanoe, but overall i LOVE it, and recommend it.  

For the first couple months, my LO, Charlie, slept on me/with me at night, and in a living room chair near me or on our bed for naps.  I used the Kanoe occasionally.  Probably around 3 or 3 1/2 months, I started trying to use it consistently for naps, because i was afraid he'd roll any day.  He would absolutely not nap in it for more than 30 minutes, compared to several hours on his tummy or side on the bed.  I was always worried about him falling off the bed though, and kept working with it.  that was a hard stage, because i hated messing with a potentially longer nap, kwim?  so, i wasn't doing it every day.  finally, at around 6 months, he started napping just as well in the hammock as on a flat surface.  Once we hit that milestone, i was finally confident that we could use it for nighttime transition from our bed.  That's when i started putting him down to start the night in there, and then bringing him to bed with me at his first waking.

Perhaps if I had used it more consistently early on as i had first planned, it wouldn't have been an adjustment for him?  he came early and i was ill for awhile.   We only had one hook up, and it was in the kitchen.  i wanted him to be by me for naps, and just wasn't hanging around in the kitchen all day, kwim?  we didn't get around to putting up an additional hook until i started using the hammock consistently as mentioned above, and by then Charlie needed a quiet spot, so we put one in our bedroom.

when Charlie hit about 8 months, he started getting more wiggly in his sleep at night, and waking up a lot more.  also, any movement i made seemed to be waking him.  Since then, i've been working on putting him back in it after his first feeding in the night, and sometimes more, if he's up often.  We both seem to sleep better, and i get lots of snuggles with him in the early morning, and also snuggles with my husband again :).

what i really love about the kanoe:  i can put him in it when he's not fully asleep and bounce him to sleep while i sit on the bed and read/email; he does sometimes resettle himself when he wakes in the night and during naps (this didn't start until 8 months); i can EASILY resettle him with one finger bouncing the hammock as i lay in bed (if he's not hungry), i barely have to move or wake up; it's easy to transfer him from my arms to the kanoe because when i bounce it he resettles well; if he's wiggly while trying to go to sleep, the kanoe is BETTER than any rocking or patting i can do at getting him to sleep; no sheets to mess with (yay); i can hang it on our front porch in nice weather, though i don't know now that he's older he'll be able to nap there.

what is tough:  now that he is 10 months, he can sit up and stand in the kanoe, as well as roll over onto his stomach.  i'm not so worried about his rolling, because at this age he will keep his airways clear.  however, i have lowered the kanoe with a thick pad underneath (a cuddlebed mattress pad we already had) so that if he manages to climb out/fall out, he won't have a dangerous landing.  it's just high enough off of the pad to be bounce-able.  the first time i found him standing, i freaked and put him in the travel crib for a couple of weeks til i found another mom who had used it through the period of mobility before walking/safe climbing.  she said her baby did fall out once, but never tried to get out again until he could safely climb in and out........ the other thing i'm unsure about is length.  charlie does not lie completely flat in the kanoe anymore because it's not long enough for that.  don't get me wrong, he's not scrunched up, but his back is bowed when laying flat.  but he has perfect posture, is right on track in his gross motor development, and seems to enjoy sleeping curled up on his side in the hammock.  i plan to keep using it as long as he sleeps comfortably - you can get a spring that is rated to 50 lbs (comes with one rated to 30). hopefully that will be until he's ready for a toddler-type set up.

for us, it's worth it.  i'll definitely use it earlier with future babies.  i wish Kanoe would still rent their hammocks, they used to, so people could try them out.  maybe check CL or Ebay for a used one?

hope this helps :)