A Baby in a Crib?? How is it done?

[mom2happy]

I am co sleeping with my third right now and someone gave me a crib.

She is 10and1/2 months right now.

I have no idea if she will even do this, but it would be nice to have one baby that doesnt take a header off the bed.

She is getting fast and it's only a matter of time (even though we have the bed barricaded, she can stand up too.)

How do you do it with a baby this age?

Mine nurses about 5 times between 10 and 7 am. I can't image how I could function if I had to get up and pull her out of the crib and ease her back into it all night.

What are your nights like?

How many nursings, rockings, soothings ....

Where is your crib?

Why does this work for you?

[Knitting Mama]

We don't use a crib here, and probably won't at all with this baby, at least, but regarding the nursings:

Cecilia used to get up 3-4 times a night to nurse, and I would just lay there and side-lying nurse her back to sleep. It worked, and I would just go back to sleep fairly easily myself, but I was bone-weary. One night, she didn't really settle the first time she woke, so I took her out into the living room and gave her a full feeding with the SNS (I have always had a low supply), and, to my shock, she slept the rest of the night! So that started our new trend-- when she wakes up for milk now, I don't try to get her to make do with a quick side-lying nursing. I get up (as much as that sucks) and make sure she has a full feeding, and she sleeps so much better for it. So even though I have to get out of bed, I get better sleep than I used to because it's less broken up.

[BetsyS]

My baby is 8 months old, but he's been in a crib since the beginning (he was in a bassinet in our room the first 3ish months). 

He wakes once a night, and I go to him, sit in a chair in the nursery, and nurse him.  Back to bed for us all.  I don't really wake up fully, but I've always been a "sleep in the middle of a crowded room" kind of girl.  I worked night shift before i had babies.  LOL

With my second, I had a bed in the nursery, and I often laid down to nurse him, then fell asleep for the rest of the night.  He took forever to sleep through the night (21 months old), and he frequently still is up in the night (31 months old).  So, I didn't want to do that this time.  Sometimes sitting up is a pain, but it's worked out fine for us. 

[SeattleRain]

I think your baby might not wake up quite as much because you won't be giving her such quick feedings. When you're cosleeping, you hear your LO fuss and you nurse right away and then they fall back asleep. So basically they're only getting little amounts at a time so they wake up more. You might end up doing what CM does, which is get up for a full feeding and then put her back to sleep.

We use a crib. I love it. I wouldn't have it any other way. Every time I've coslept with Daniel neither of us has gotten much sleep.

[MsFortune]

Are you open to using pacifier?  At that age, she is just nursing for comfort - not actual hunger / need.  So if you can get her to sleep in the crib, and when she wakes, give her the pacifier, it will reduce her night wakings.  

Also, not being next to mom - and getting woken by mom's movements - she should wake less.  

I suggest practicing putting her down when she is drowsy, but not asleep.  Like ALMOST asleep - right on the verge - but not quite.  Do this for naps, or whatever.  So she learns to go to sleep on her own.  

If you get up and nurse her that many times a night you might as well not use the crib - I agree - would be very tiring

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by MsFortune 

Are you open to using pacifier?  At that age, she is just nursing for comfort - not actual hunger / need.  So if you can get her to sleep in the crib, and when she wakes, give her the pacifier, it will reduce her night wakings.  

Also, not being next to mom - and getting woken by mom's movements - she should wake less.  

I suggest practicing putting her down when she is drowsy, but not asleep.  Like ALMOST asleep - right on the verge - but not quite.  Do this for naps, or whatever.  So she learns to go to sleep on her own.  

If you get up and nurse her that many times a night you might as well not use the crib - I agree - would be very tiring

The part I bolded is not true for every child. Many, maybe even most, children, yes. Not every, though. Each mother needs to evaluate what fits their child. My 11 month old daughter does still need to nurse every 4 or so hours, day or night. She gains weight slowly, and doesn't eat a lot of solids, so cutting out that nighttime nursing would mean she got way less nutrition.

[skyewriter]

Can't imagine wanting to get anyone out of my bed, I like sleeping while they nurse!!! BUT I wanted to say that about that header... I could climb out of my crib by 9mo.... mom never figured out how! And but older son could too (I tried using one as a safe spot for him to be while I tried to finish up a series I was working on) and there he was grabbing for my inks, never figured out how he managed it either - and he was  right in the room with me!! Just a thought..

[lifeguard]

The crib thing was always mystifying for me. We tried, oh did we try, but I could never figure out how to put him into it without waking him. I'm hopeful we figure something different out for this one 'cause quite frankly, I do not sleep well with a baby in my bed.

[BetsyS]

Some of it is a personality thing.  My oldest had to be dead to the world before you put him down.  And, even then, I kept his little spot covered with a blanket all the time (then removed it when I laid him down) so that he never got the cold sheet shock.  LOL

My second laid down AWAKE every single time.  Nuts.

And, my third, I do a mixture of stuff.  Sometimes awake, sometimes almost asleep, sometimes dead to the world.  He is by far my most flexible child (in all accounts), though. 

Oh, and my kids like their cribs.  My 2.5 year old is still in his.  He learned to climb out of it around 18-20 months or so, but we just taught him to do it safely (he's  a monkey by nature), and he climbs in and out as needed.  Never fallen.  But my number 2 and 3 are both slow to move around babies (like not rolling over until 9+ months old slow--content to sit and eat--LOL).

[SilverFish]

i like having our crib, for a number of reasons. one is that i have a fairly bad back, and sleeping in one or two positions throughout the night is a recipe for pain and suffering the next day. another is that, indeed, my dd definitely seems to sleep as well if not better without the distractions of mom and dad. third, we often get an hour or so of quiet, independent play from her in the evenings before she is ready to sleep. she has a box of soft toys in her crib and will play happily for a little while at least, while DH and I get some down time. the crib is contained, comfy and signals restful evening play, as opposed to playing in the living room, for example. so, for our dd, at this moment in time, the crib is an important part of our nights. she comes to bed with us at her first waking, and generally stays the rest of the night with us, unless that first waking is earlier than normal, in which case i generally stay awake to transfer her back once she is done nursing. sometimes she doesn't wake at all, and sometimes she spends almost all night with us, if she's not feeling well.

if we had a larger bed, and room to store our bed frame, i would consider having a king size bed on the floor a good alternative to our current arrangement, except, i do enjoy being able to read, use the laptop, and have time with my DH in our bed without worrying about waking the baby.

anyway, every baby is different. you will never know what they will do until you try it. as for how i put her down, we also do a mix of awake and swaddled, lightly sleeping, and totally, completely dead to the world. she is quite flexible that way. i don't know what i would do if she generally woke more than once or twice a night to nurse. but i do think that she does probably sleep longer stretches in her own space.

[Hannah32]

I love that my baby sleeps in a crib. Nobody got any sleep when he slept with us. 

[asberck]

We do something different every night it seems.  Some nights DS will talk until he falls asleep in his cradle (he is 6 mo and we haven't moved from cradle to crib yet).  Even if we have to rock him, nurse him, or walk him to sleep, we put him in his cradle first.  This does not mean that he won't end up in our bed which is often the case.  I do get up and do a full nursing during the night.  Usually around 3 or 4 am.  Then he might like another at 5 or 6 am and that is usually when he ends up in our bed.  We can really only handle two hours together as a family in the bed before things get ridiculous and uncomfortable (baby is a thrasher, kicker, hitter, etc. in his sleep).  

Going to bed is another issue!  I HAVE to have some mommy time at night before I go to bed.  We start the going to bed process at around 9 pm currently.  He rock and sing and walk and jiggle and nurse and he wakes up several times.  I was not at all going to use a pacifier but this kid is manic about his pacifier.  If it falls out of his mouth before he is really sound asleep he wakes up shrieking.  He won't take a nap at all without it.  

So that would be about 5 soothings, one or two solid nursing sessions or occasional bottle if DH is getting up with DS and an ever-evolving sleeping situation.  

The newest development is DS getting fully awake during 4 am nurse and wanting to play.  Any suggestions on that?

[Knitting Mama]

I can commiserate, my daughter still does that sometimes at 11 months old. I just doze on the floor while she plays around (and on) me!

[MSWmama]

I wish my DS would sleep in his crib for jus a couple of hours at night (he's 4 months), but he'll only sleep in our bed, nursing all night long. Naps are a joke around here. He's like a baby ninja, the way he springs awake the second we think about putting him in the crib or cosleeper!

[new2this]

For the fist few months we coslept I liked the nursing and being able to sleep. However DD wouldn't have it anymore so we all ended up not getting any sleep. Naps from about 4 weeks on I put her in her crib. Sometimes she didn't mind other times she did so we would try the swing or bouncer or just holding her. From 3-5 months she was in the pack n play in our room. She started eating less at night and sleeping better. I would just bring her to bed with me nurse and we would fall asleep. She would move and I would wake and move her back to the PnP and she would go right back to sleep. Now she is in her room in her crib. It took about a week to get her used to it but after a week or so she sleeps just fine in there. She would wake once a night to eat the rest of the wake ups were more of the pacifier game. I feel safer as well with her in the crib/PnP over our bed as well now that she moves in her sleep...lol 

Oh and I would say 9 out of 10 times she is laid down awake. If I put her in there already asleep she would freak out when waking up. 

[poorlittlefish]

I just transitioned my 8.5 month old DD.  She co-slept since birth and it got to the point where no one was sleeping.  We slept together awesome up until about a month ago, then she started thrashing, all night nursing etc.  So, I decided I was going to give it a week of solid effort.  I nurse her to sleep in her room and put her in her crib.  Any time she woke up before 3am, I would nurse her and put her back to bed.  After 3am, she was brought into bed with me.  There were 3 really bad nights where I almost gave up and brought her in with me but after just 7 days, she slept on Saturday night from 7pm-7am with only one waking.  I couldnt believe it.  She also really eats when she wakes up now, not just a few sips.  I guess she (and I) sleep better in our own beds.

[motherhendoula]

15 years ago we used a crib for our DD - and she LOVED that crib...for us, she would wake up and play with stuffed animals (that was OK back then!)   for nearly an hour before i needed to go in and get her.  The only sleep problems i ever had with her was when she was 2.5 and i tried to take that precious crib away from her and give it to her newborn brother - and since i nursed him - he stayed in the bassinette in our bedroom for 6 months - so i neednt have bothered!   The nice thing about a crib is the 'safe place to put the baby'  - now that DS#2 is 6 months old ...i have no chance of getting a shower until someone else comes home.   (Im all for wearing my baby - just not during a shower- i dunno, i just cant do it!)   he is on a futon next to our bed - we are still considering a crib....

[waiting2bemommy]

At 10 months I don't know if I'd have bothered....both of mine were in toddler beds by then. However with ds I did used to lay him in his crib when he first went to bed. He had an early bedtime with a very structured routine so I don't know if that made a difference, because we are more go with the flow (read:lazier lol) with dd and she despises cribs, playpens and pretty much all baby containing devices. Anyway I would nurse him, then dance around with him to the putomayo kids' african rhythms cd until he was asleep, then very gently ease him into the pre warmed crib (I used a heating pad which I removed right before putting him in) and pat his back/butt until he was dead asleep. Then when he first woke around 11 I brought him to bed with me.

IMO cribs are a major PITA. But then again I've never had one of those babies everyone talks about where you just lay them in their crib and say goodnight and they drift off peacefully to sleep. Ha! Not in this house....

[memz]

My DD coslept with us  for 12 months where she was waking about every 2 hours to nurse. At 11 months she started to finally nap alone in our bed and at 12 months to nap in her pack n play. Then at 12 1/2 months she started sleeping in her pack n play at night. The very first night she slept from 8h to 5h!!!! She went from waking every 2 hours to sleeping throught the night...I couldn't believe it. Now at almost 14 months she sleeps from 7h  to 7h every night!! I miss the cosleeping but I guess she just needed her own space!

[mom2happy]

Originally Posted by memz 

My DD coslept with us  for 12 months where she was waking about every 2 hours to nurse. At 11 months she started to finally nap alone in our bed and at 12 months to nap in her pack n play. Then at 12 1/2 months she started sleeping in her pack n play at night. The very first night she slept from 8h to 5h!!!! She went from waking every 2 hours to sleeping throught the night...I couldn't believe it. Now at almost 14 months she sleeps from 7h  to 7h every night!! I miss the cosleeping but I guess she just needed her own space!

This would be nice!

Last night she was up 7 times between the hours of 10 and 6 am. I don't move around though, so I don't see how I would disturb her sleep. She seems to just want to suck.

She won't take a pacifier. Sometimes I pat her on the back and she'll setting back down.

Do you put the pack and play right next to your bed?

I am worried that I would be so tired I'd hurt myself or her pulling her in and out all night. She is 26lbs.