Babies: 0 - 3 Months
LargeMargeSentMe
member
When to transition from RNP to crib?
LargeMargeSentMe
member
DD is just over 4 weeks old. She's still sleeping in our room in her Rock and Play. She feeds at 10, then we all go to bed. She eats again at 3 and then up at 6:30. Sometimes from reading here, I am beginning to feel like we're not being structured enough with her. During the day, she naps whenever she wants, and always downstairs with us. I'm beginning to wonder if we should at least try to get her in her crib at night. I don't want to create a monster for later. Is it time to transition? Any tips for doing that? (Is it weird I will miss having her in our room?)
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Re: When to transition from RNP to crib?
DD is 5 weeks today, but our schedule is EXACTLY the same as your's (down to when she wakes and where she naps). IMO, the first 3 months are a time to just do what works for you. I will keep her in the RnP for that time if she continues to do well and then transition at 3 months.
The only thing that was hard for us to break with DS, was napping in our arms. He was my first and I never wanted to put him down, but over time it did get hard to do naps anywhere other than on me. So with DD, I let her fall asleep on me and then move her to the swing or bouncer.
This is what we are doing as well. FWIW I don't have much of a routine going for my DD either. She sometimes takes a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day and I let her. I don't like the idea of putting limits on eating and sleeping. As long as she is producing enough wet diapers I let her sleep. I know she will fall into a routine when I go back to work and she goes to daycare.
We didn't really have any issues we put her down in her crib and she didn't sleep any less than she did in the PnP in our room. She is now 7 weeks and will sleep for 4 or so hour stretches. My advice is to just stick with it and be prepared for maybe a few hard nights until LO gets used to it. But for us it was pretty easy. I'm glad we did it, she sleeps much better and so do we!
As far as structure goes, we try and have her in bed at the same time every night which is usually between 8 and 8:30. During the day she still naps pretty much whenever she wants but it tends to be around the same times every day so she's kind of established a day time schedule on her own. She still takes her naps in her swing durning the day
My DS is 7 1/2 weeks old. At 4 weeks I too was reading blogs and saw that many people already had put schedules on their babies of the same age. So I felt the peer pressure to do the same. I had and the baby had a bad reaction. I woke him to feed and tried to put him down when he wasn't ready which left a very over tired baby and a very frustrated mommy! Never again! I am now of the mind never wake a sleeping baby.
DS for the last 2 plus weeks has put himself on a schedule. He is in fact sleeping through the night (11pm to 6 am or so) and is now liking to sleep in his crib during his daytime naps. Before he was crying so much that he barely got a nap. (He sleeps in RnP at night next to me...I'm not ready to move him yet but will move him at 3 mths to crib at night)
I say listen to your baby...they will tell you when they are hungry and when they are tired. They will also tell you when they are ready to sleep in their crib.