Ok, about to move to crib for naps/night and need any and all advice!

st.augbride

Dd is 12.5 months old and is ready to go to the crib! She's been sleeping with me at night, nursing all night long, and naps in the carrier in the day with either me or dh (sleeps great in there, about 1-2.5 hrs twice per day). But she is now almost 21lbs and I just need to get her in that crib! I also feel she will sleep better at night once in her own space as she really doesn't need to be nursing all night long (no longer eats breakfast even, probably because she is so full). That said, I'm scared to do it and don't know how! I have a twin mattress on the floor in her room so I could nurse her there to sleep and then transition her to her crib at night. Would that just be a bad habit to have to fix or would that ease the transition? Should I do naps first and then night sleep later? She is actually scheduled to have a surgery next week so I will for sure wait until we are past that and she is healed up, though I wonder if she will be able to sleep in the carrier as safely after it... It's for a cochlear implant so she will have a large bandage on her head.

Emerald27

She will probably want lots and lots of snuggles post-op, so I would definitely wait until she's feeling better.

With DS, we skipped the crib altogether and just went straight to the twin floor bed. He sleeps there and I hear him if he starts to move and wake up, so I can go to him and nurse him back to sleep pretty quickly. I find the lowering into a crib where I can't share the sleeping space to be kind of a hassle. DS used to wake more often to nurse, but has been giving me longer and longer stretches of sleep (and once slept all through the night!). Now I get about 5 uninterrupted hours before he wants to nurse, and then I usually sleep with him or just hop back up and go to my own bed once he's back asleep.

So I don't have any advice from experience, but I have heard that mothers have success with sleeping with the crib sheets for a week so that they smell like mom, laying on a blanket or warming it inside your shirt and placing it into the crib before laying LO down to prevent the change in temp from waking her, and waiting until LO is deeply asleep (floppy limbs) before laying her down.

Good luck!

=Lee=B

Can you push a bed up beside the crib for a few nights so you can reach in and touch baby and baby can see/hear you.  Then slowly move the bed away once baby is settled in with crib?

We did this when my daughter was a few months old...she was perfectly fine in her crib for naps (though bedshared at night due to my laziness).  But, as my post a few minutes ago said we had a huge regression and are now trying to ease back into the crib using above manner.

I would likely wait until post op...and plan to lie with her for naps...have phone, laptop, books handy to chill next to her.