different opinions

BananaSD

We are currently bed sharing b/c LO will just not sleep anywhere else.  Half the people I talk to tell me to try to put her in her crib/bassinet now and suffer thru a couple sleepless nights b/c is better to start early.  The other half of people tell me to kepp doing what works to get sleep now and wait til she's older (it wont start a bad habit)  I dont know which one to try?  How many horrible, sleepless nights (not her CIO, but me getting up to soothe every 5 minutes) would you try before you go back to bedsharing?  Can she be "taught" to sleep on her own at this young age?

vmm0016

We put ours in the crib from day one.  She does fine there but I know people do both.

Lurksgirl

Our LO slept in our bed with us for the first month and a half. We moved her to her bassinet and we've not had any problems with that yet. She is still in our room, right beside my side of the bed and it's easy for me to get up with her to feed her and soothe her when necessary.  We really didn't have too much trouble transitioning her to her bassinet.  What we did was let her fall asleep on our bed and then move her to her bassinet.  I still do that some nights when she's cranky and only wants to touch mommy to go to sleep.

kattyleigh

I dealt with a similar problem when DD was six weeks old and we wanted to move her to the crib.  She had been sleeping in her carseat/bouncy chair.  She refused to go down in her crib without it.  We would put the chair in the crib and she would be fine though.  Anyways, one day I just decided that we would go for it and get her to sleep in the crib.  We waited until she was very tired and fell asleep nursing.  We got her down in the crib and she didn't even notice but she woke up like every hour.  Finally I gave in and let her sleep the rest of the night in the chair.  The next night was a little better and the following night even better.  Finally after about a week she went down in her crib no problems and has been sleeping there ever since.  GL!

BananaSD

kattyleigh:

I dealt with a similar problem when DD was six weeks old and we wanted to move her to the crib.  She had been sleeping in her carseat/bouncy chair.  She refused to go down in her crib without it.  We would put the chair in the crib and she would be fine though.  Anyways, one day I just decided that we would go for it and get her to sleep in the crib.  We waited until she was very tired and fell asleep nursing.  We got her down in the crib and she didn't even notice but she woke up like every hour.  Finally I gave in and let her sleep the rest of the night in the chair.  The next night was a little better and the following night even better.  Finally after about a week she went down in her crib no problems and has been sleeping there ever since.  GL!

thank you!  This makes me feel that there is hope!

amberose83

My DD, who is now 2 years old, slept in our bed for the first 3 months and when I decided to put her in a crib she was fine. She has always slept through the night just fine. I know for some this doesn't work but with mine it was fine. With LO, he is 3 weeks, and he sleeps better in our bed but I have been trying to keep him in his own.

aegrimm

Honestly, this is up to you. Personally, I don't like the idea of bed-sharing. It's NMS as a mom. But, I don't have any right to say what works/doesn't work for other moms.

But, to answer your question, babies can learn to sleep on their own. For the first few weeks Lily would only sleep in my arms. I gradually got her to sleep in her bassinet and now she sleeps there all night (except when she wakes for feedings of course).

We had to use a few tricks. For instance, before we put her down we have to warm her bassinet and blanket with a heating pad. We feed her and rock her to sleep and then wait 10 minutes fo rher to fall into a deeper sleep. Then move the heating pad, put her in the bassinet and rock it a little bit. We repeat this for each night time feeding.

It's quite a lot to handle (especially at 2 in the morning) but, like I said, I didn't want to bed share. If you like bed-sharing, though, I say keep at it. There are safe ways to do it. There's a website out there with info, the ladies on the AP board might have it. Don't let anyone think they can have any bearing on your parenting style. It'll only ge worse as LO gets older.