Anyone Having Luck with Cribs??

AdorkablePixie

I can't get my DS to sleep in his crib often. He has taken a couple of naps in there for about an hour, one nap for an hour and a half.. this is with me putting him in after he is already asleep. Most of the time, though, when I put him down he wakes up crying 20-30 minutes later. Sometimes he won't even last that long! I am at a loss on how to have him sleep in his crib without waking up and crying. I haven't even tried to put him in there at night yet.

Has anyone else had any luck? How do you get them to stay in there? Anyone has any tips or tricks?

missnc77

We started putting her in the crib for naps when she was 4 weeks. I have to rock her to sleep and put her in it. She sometimes will wake up for a second then usually go back to sleep. The crapshoot is her swaddle. If she's tightly swaddled and fast asleep, she'll sleep for 1 to 1.5 hours. If she starts trying to get an arm out, then it wakes her up. She will also kick her legs and wake herself up. I tried swaddling with one arm out, and she didn't sleep as well until she turned herself on her side after getting the other arm out. If I need to make sure she sleeps for 1+ hours, I get lazy and put her in her rock-n-play for naps.

I mentioned in another thread that I ordered a DockATot to see if that helps her crib naps. I wouldn't use it at night when I'm not constantly checking the monitor, so I don't really know how it helps transition her to eventual night sleeps. If she'd quick kick her darn legs! I should put a disclaimer in that she's slept in a gliding bassinet since we brought her home. She's used to sleeping flat, and overtime we've reduced the speed of the glider, so she seems okay without constant movement. I think where the movement and vibration win is when she starts kicking and wakes herself up, it calms her back to sleep. The crib can't do that. 

NinnyJean

We tried for naps unsuccessfully but last night she slept eight hours in it! We swaddled her which I think helped but I also placed her at the end of the crib with her head near the wall and her feet towards the room, so if she stretched there wasn't so much empty space. I also placed a laundry basket (has holes so if she made her way to it it would allow her to breath) in the crib to take up half the space, so again less room for her to startle herself. 

yogahh

Harper has been in hers since week 2, and is the only way she will sleep (that's not on me that is!!). She needs to be swaddled (we use the woombie), and I have a whole routine we do to get her to know it is bed time. Last week we started using it for naps too, and having the freedom for 3 hours a day has been refreshing!


What is your LO currently sleeping in? Are you swaddling?

Bellodomani

Virginia will pretty much sleep wherever if she's swaddled and we have loud white noise going, but a lot of babies have to work up to the crib after they reach 3 or 4 months and they get more neurologically settled. I wouldn't stress yourself out about where the baby is sleeping at this age as long as they're sleeping. Do what works for now, try it again in a week or two. You really can't form bad habits at this age, so I would just try to maximize sleep for everyone  however you can. 

kitandcat

Our LOs sound like twinsies! :-) I try all the time to put him down in his crib and it usually only lasts 20-30 minutes before he starts moving his arms and legs around and wakes himself up. I also have to get him asleep first or he won't let me leave him in there at all. I don't swaddle him and I know it would help if I tightly swaddled his arms... I am just too nervous that he will roll over. He rolled from tummy to back when he wasn't even a week old- he has super strong neck muscles and has crazy head movement. 

He is 5 weeks and has a pretty solid night time routine in his RNP. I nurse him, change his diaper, sometimes give him a bath, then change into PJs, swaddle his arms in a tight "Swaddle Me" blanket, add a pacifier, and then he's out! I put him in the RNP and he falls right asleep if he isn't already. He will stir a little here and there but calms himself and goes back to sleep. Repeat during MOTN feedings and he falls right asleep every time. I don't worry about the arms being swaddled in the RNP because he can't roll over in there. But this means he's sleeping swaddled, at an angle, with vibrations :-) no wonder he won't sleep in his crib or his PNP! During the day he sleeps in my arms, in his swing, in the boppy, in his car seat (if we go somewhere). So he's pretty much always at an angle. He can pretty much fall asleep anywhere but the crib and PNP are the only places where I can only get 20 minutes out of him. 

My plan... And it's probably a terrible one LOL... But once he's old enough to soothe himself and I can do sleep training (I think around 3-4 months?), then that's when I'll just have to make the crib a part of that transition and see how it goes. I also am going to keep trying everyday to get him to nap in his crib... But I'm just not brave/courageous enough to give it a go at night because he sleeps so well in his RNP ... I am getting enough sleep that I don't even need to nap during the day anymore!! And of course it's still soon enough that I want him right next to my bed anyway so I like having him in the RNP. 

vinerie

LO has slept in the crib since we brought him home. (We have the crib in our bedroom right now.) Not sure what we did, but he took to it. I put him in a swaddle and he's been fine. Doesn't like it as much during the day, but if he's reallllly sleepy, I can put him down there. I think he can sense we are in the room at night, which is why he's more okay with it then.

kbrands7

I've had extremes. DS1 never slept well in his crib; no matter what we tried the absolute longest stretch we could get was 3hrs once per night and that didn't happen for a loooong time. He slept better bedsharing or on a mattress on the floor of the nursery. He sleeps much better in a twin size bed than he ever did in a crib. DS2 took to the crib and PNP right away and so far has slept anywhere I put him. He often does naps in the crib in the boys' shared room, but sleeps nights in the PNP in our bedroom. 

I wouldn't worry about pushing for the crib just yet. Continue to let him get familiar with it, and learn what he likes, but don't be hard on yourself if he doesn't take to it right away.

KidShrink

How is he with sleeping in other places? How is his temperament generally speaking? We're lucky because our little guy will pretty much sleep anywhere, through anything. He naps either in his bassinet or in the swing, but I put him in his crib last week as I was folding clothes upstairs. Our cleaning lady was vacuuming and asking me whether I wanted his room vacuumed, and he slept through the whole thing. And he sleeps through shopping trips, street festival with loud music, etc. Yes, his hearing has been checked. He startles, but doesn't get upset easily- our doctor calls his chill lil' dude. One of my friend was here with her little girl born in February the other day. Her baby didn't sleep more than 30 min anywhere in our house, and usually spends A LOT of time in mommy's arms. She just gets overwhelmed by a lot (screams in the swing, screams when on the playmat, too stimulated by the decor). So I guess what I'm saying is that different babies with different temperaments will handle things likenthe crib differently. If he sleeps 1-1.5hrs in there now, I'd keep on doing what you're doing, and eventually he'll get used to it. 

mondo77

I'm working on crib naps as well with limited success. Much harder to get any lengthy nap in the crib! My son is large, around 14lb and 25"  at 7 weeks – so he's not going to fit in his bassinet much longer. Considering forcing the crib overnight in a couple weeks and sleeping in there with him the first few nights.

cdmkruger

We started our daughter off in the crib right away. She sleeps in it throughout the night but wont take naps in it. She will also only sleep in it if her legs are swaddled. She will fight if i swaddle her arms and wake herself up. She will only nap on me or in her swing during the day

dsmith211

I'm really starting to work on the crib today. We just got an audio monitor and we're starting to at least try with overnights. We figured it would probably take some time to get used to and I only have a month of leave left which is when we would like to have him in his room by. Unfortunately so far all I've really gotten is a 20 min nap. I just put him down for another one so I guess we'll see how it goes.