Crib transition progress-UPDATED

kas80

I finally realized that when you have an incredibly stubborn little girl, there is no method that is going to be completely no cry and so last night we just bit the bullet.  We shushed, patted, talked to her from outside the crib and it took 3 hours.  3.  HOURS.  Of alternating between hysterical crying and near hysterical crying before she fell asleep for maybe an hour before waking.  At that point I figured she needed to eat again so I got her up.

Then she wouldn't go back to sleep (because it was play!time! apparantly) until 3:45.  I nursed her, transferred her to the crib and she didn't cry, but woke up again in an hour crying.  This time we only patted her the first couple times and then just shushed her from the bed next to the crib but didn't get up.  It only took 40 minutes, which was a vast improvement, and she slept for 5 hours straight.  I could hear her hourly wake and then she'd settle herself back down to sleep. Not sure if it's a fluke but I'm hoping it continues to improve tonight.  3 hours is heartbreaking even though I know there was nothing wrong with her except that she was mad.   I'm not sure I have it in me to repeat that if it doesn't improve so I'm hoping that tonight we don't go over an hour.

 

barefoot barista

Awww. Next time, don't wake her up. She will get up when she is hungry. Let her sleep, and feed her when she gets up, they to get to her before she totally wakes up so that she kind of sleep eats.

emilys629

barefoot barista:

Awww. Next time, don't wake her up. She will get up when she is hungry. Let her sleep, and feed her when she gets up, they to get to her before she totally wakes up so that she kind of sleep eats.

 

I agree with this, but I know it's really easy to second guess the reason she is crying. It's so hard!!! 

rainstar752

I would guess you might get faster results if you aren't standing in the room with her- at least for us, DD gets much more upset if she knows we're there and not picking her up.  If she's going to cry anyway, you might want to give it a shot- you might be surprised at how fast she calms down once you leave the room.

kas80

rainstar752:

I would guess you might get faster results if you aren't standing in the room with her- at least for us, DD gets much more upset if she knows we're there and not picking her up.  If she's going to cry anyway, you might want to give it a shot- you might be surprised at how fast she calms down once you leave the room.

The crib is in our bedroom so at night we are going to be next to her crib anyway.  I was trying to train her for normal conditions.  Like if we make it so it's okay as long as we aren't in the room I didn't want to go back through it when we are in the room and she's mad that we won't pick her up and put her in bed with us.  Does that make sense?

 My original post wasn't clear- I didn't wake her up to eat, she slept for an hour and woke herself up but enough time had passed that I figured she was hungry so I took her out to feed her and then she was wide awake.

kas80

UPDATE: Tonight was much, much better. She now allows herself to be calmed down while in the crib if you pat her back so I don't feel like I'm doing CIO against my husband and I's will. The first stretch was 45 minutes of upset and the second was less than 20 minutes. I'm doing 5 minutes of letting her fuss (it wasn't hysterical this time around) with me shushing outside the crib then 2-3 minutes of back patting, repeat. She's now slept 3 hours straight and counting in her crib and took her late afternoon hour nap in there. This is HUGE progress from where we were before (screaming like her toes were being cut off just putting her in the crib at all).