What does your baby sleep on?

[DeChRi]

I have a question for co-sleeper and non-co-sleepers as well. DD starts in a basinette next to the bed and quickly ends up with us in bed for the night. During the day she sleeps in the sling. I'm finding there needs time, for my sanity, that she sleeps not on me. During the day when I need to shower. At night, I would love if she slept for more than 10 min starting out in her basinette before snuggling in with us for the night, so DH and I can cuddle up and have some bonding time. With my first daughter, I loved co-sleeping, and do this time too. I do know that one thing I did poorly in that marriage (this is #2 for me) is that I lost focus on taking care of myself and my marriage. I Need that shower alone each day. I Need to have some physical time to connect with DH.

That being said...DD2 will NOT sleep if I lay her down. Not in a basinette, crib, our bed, notta. She can be out cold, I lay her down, and that is it. I lay with her on our bed and nurse her to sleep before shower, and I move she wakes. The only time she slept for more than 5 min is when I had her on a very squishy blanket. But she is flailing around these days and I don't trust her sleeping on that suqishy of a blanket. It seems to be a comfort thing, wanting to be nestled in.

Are there any tips you have for getting your LO's to snooze for a bit solo? Is there a particular surface they are partial to?

Just curious.

[mittendrin]

nak

poor thing, my second baby was like that...what's wrong with a squishy blanket? as long as it's breathable material she should be fine.

have you tried a sheepskin?

[monocyte]

nak

ive discovered that h will fall asleep watching me in the shower - its a stand up shower stall with a glass door - something about that and the overhead fans is soothing to him - even at 3 am.

but, i know not everyone has this option...

h is loving being swaddled tightly, and will sleep for a long time if done so - but not laying flat down (he's really gassy) so i put him in the bouncy seat for a snooze.

[JamesMama]

nak

right now dd is sick so she is sleeping upright in her swing. otherwise she sleeps in bed. dd is like yours has to be held. if i lay her down she wakes up.

[Curlita]

Had a hard time with this with Dylan, and to some extent now with Conrad as well. During the day he will nap briefly in the swing, sling or on me. I can carefully move him from my lap to the sofa and he will nap there briefly, usually. But if he's asleep and I put him down in the bassinet? No dice.

At night we swaddle him and I nurse him to sleep and then put him down in the bassinet. We've had a lot of nights where he woke up shortly after putting him down, but that seems to be passing. The key for him seems to be 1) the swaddle -- and bedtime is the only time he is swaddled now and 2) making sure he is stuffed to the gills with milk. Putting him somewhat on his side to sleep seems to help also.

We are in week 3 and he is just now being able to settle down without constant contact... I think it took some time to adjust to being out of the womb (and who can blame him?). It might be a matter of time for Delainey. Good luck!

[FillingMyQuiver]

I'm sorry you're having a difficult time w/ the babe sleeping. Finding what works for babe, mama, and family can be so draining at times. What works for our family, probably won't work for your family, but here's what we do...

Daytime sleeping: We have a mini co-sleeper that we use as the "safe spot" for DS2. Since I have a 3.5yo and a 2yo running around, we needed someplace where I could put DS2 when I couldn't hold him for whatever reason. For the most part, DS2 falls asleep on me and then I transfer him to the co-sleeper. FWIW, we DO have a sheepskin in the co-sleeper and DS2 sleeps GREAT on it. Yes, I am aware of the risks, I am also VERY diligent in checking on him AND we keep the co-sleeper in the main living part of the house, so he's amongst the hustle and bustle of our day (he learned VERY quickly to sleep through all the noise his older brother and sister make ) Sometimes I let him have his full nap sleeping on me, but honestly, with 2 other children under 4 running around, it's usually not very feasible:

Nighttime sleeping: We co-sleep full time with all 3 kiddos. You can click on my name in my siggie to see our rather large family bed (it's 2 queen sets next to each other). DS2 sleeps between me and the wall (I have a body pillow against the wall to keep him from bumping the wall when he skootches around and to keep him away from the cold, the wall is an outside wall). The babe doesn't actually go into the bed until I go to bed though, so when he falls asleep during the evening/ night before I'm in bed, he's usually sleeping on me, DH, or in the co-sleeper. As far as keeping our marriage sane, since we have the co-sleeper in the living area of the apt, DH and I can usually lay DS2 down in it while we snuggle on the couch and have "us" time. Honestly, our bed is really just for sleeping. Intimacy in our marriage (not just sex) happens outside the bedroom b/c we co-sleep.

I don't really have any tips for you, what works for our family has kind of evolved out of lots of trial and error.

[GinaRae]

nak

We have some similar issues. He starts out in a bassinette and once he's OUT we do get a few hours (though we're sleeping!!). Then he comes into bed with me and I have to contort around him. Once in a while he will sleep i between us, but it's fitful.

Once in a while I can keep him asleep in a vibrating Papasan chair thingy during the day.

I've had a lot of help for getting the kids off to school and showering, but that ends this week, so we shall see! He's usually in a decent mood during his wakeful time in the early morfning so I will try to sneak my shower in then when he's on the bed sucking his hand.

[lisalulu]

The only thing other than me or my bed that has worked so far is the infant car seat. He won't stay in there long-maybe 20 minutes tops- but its just long enough to grab a shower, put something on the stove,etc. And its nice that I can move it around so it can in the bathroom with me when I'm showering. I am hoping he'll get a little used to his co-sleeper but we'll see...

[Momma Aimee]

here is a tip from my mmom

a lot of the reason the babe wakes up is change -- no matter how asleep YOU are -- if some one rips off the blankets, do you wake up?

poor thing, all snuggled up on a warm momma (or dadddy) and then BAM -- alone on a cold hard bed (crib) ....

try warming where you will put the baby with a heating pad before laying abby down -- of course remove heating pad before putting baby there

also try wrapping baby in recieveing blanket, or wearable balnket ... and leaving baby in that when you lay them down, to reduce the temp change .. snuggled into blanket with body heat, and that at least stays the same

[sorteep]

either on me, DH or MIL or in swing/ bouncy seat or car seat.. he ahs reflux so badly lying him down for diaper chgs is a nightmare and I have the pad on an angle... anyone want a really nice never used bassinette??

[welldone]

my little guy won't sleep, either--not in a crib, bassinet, sling, nothing.

only on me.

two things that have been semi-successful for me:
*i have gotten mild success getting him to sleep in the carseat for about 20 minutes at a time, in the kitchen w/ the fan on high. but, this only works once every few days.
*asher LOVES sleeping on his belly. if i put him on his belly in his crib, he sleeps for 20 minutes or more, alone! but only when he's totally out. i feel weird about the whole belly thing, but our mattresses are all natural, so that's not a concern.

i have two other kids, too, and they're getting tired of me holding the baby all day. honestly, so am i. we co-sleep at night. i feel like it's not asking much for him to sleep alone for one or two naps a day. and that's our goal--one or two good naps, alone, each day, by 4-5 months of age. that may not sound like much to the rest of you, but for us, it feels like that may never happen!

[Danielle69]

Originally Posted by mittendrin

nak

poor thing, my second baby was like that...what's wrong with a squishy blanket? as long as it's breathable material she should be fine.

have you tried a sheepskin?

Just something I read about sheepskin. I don't know if it is proven-but I figured I would share it.

http://www.stopsidsnow.com/Sheepskins.html

[Grace24]

I second the vibrating papasan chair!

We've also tried the heating-pad-on-the-cosleeper thing and got a good nap out of him, but he really prefers to be in bed with us. He's only 12 days old though. We have a crib and cosleeper and he doesn't sleep in either one

Making sure he's had a really good feed, plus the heating pad trick, plus a good swaddle, is our best combo so far. Good luck!