Crib vs. co-sleeping
I first want to say thanks to all of you who respond to my posts even though I am not on that much. We are starting to have some issues with LO. She used to love being rocked to sleep and now, even though she is clearly tired she screams and cries when we try to rock her. Sometimes we will lay her in her crib and she plays, rolls around, and fusses a bit. I keep thinking maybe she will just fall asleep, but eventually she will start crying so we go in for her. Here is where my questions are...
1. When we go back in, she bats our hands away and doesn't want binky or bottle. What would you do?
2. We have been picking her up and trying to soothe her, but she isn't easily soothed until we take her to our bed. Do we give up the crib and just stick to co-sleeping?
3. Is it detrimental in some way for her not to learn to sleep on her own? Will this get better as she gets older or are we starting a bad pattern?
4. Is it normal for an almost 7 month old to tantrum?
Thanks more than you know for any wisdom! We are trying to do our best but need to come up with a plan and stick with it for the sanity of our LO.
Re: Crib vs. co-sleeping
My guess is that answers to this are going to be very dependent upon personal parenting beliefs. What works for me and my baby is to follow her cues. If cosleeping is what makes everyone happier and more rested, thats what we'd do. Having an infant be an independent sleeper is not a goal ours. As for the tantrum, she's just trying to communicate her needs (and might be a little overtired, too), i bet it'll go away when you find something that works for you all.
If you arent completely sold on bed-sharing, how about an arm's reach cosleeper or similar? We've used a travel crib pulled up to the bed as a cosleeper since our LO was tiny and it still works great.
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1. When we go back in, she bats our hands away and doesn't want binky or bottle. What would you do? I'd pick her up.
2. We have been picking her up and trying to soothe her, but she isn't easily soothed until we take her to our bed. Do we give up the crib and just stick to co-sleeping? It's what I'd do. Unless there's a reason cosleeping doesn't work for you.
3. Is it detrimental in some way for her not to learn to sleep on her own? Will this get better as she gets older or are we starting a bad pattern? No, not at this age. I coslept with my DD until 16mo when she transitioned to a twin bed. I don't think most moms (including non-AP moms) would find it odd to read a few books and sing songs to your child, or even sit with them until they are asleep and we did that for a long time. But DD does now go to sleep on her own.
4. Is it normal for an almost 7 month old to tantrum? Haha! Yes. DS is just getting to the point where he gets MAD when he drops a toy or doesn't get picked up immediately.