Advice on crib sleep

st.augbride

Dd is almost 7 weeks and I'm trying to transition her to the crib. I just put her in for a nap. She fussed for 25 minutes and slept for 30. If she was on me, this would have been a 1-3 hr nap. Now she is trying to sleep on me since I took her out. What would you do for this?

EPQueen

I don't have an answer but am going through the exact same scenario right now! My LO is 7 weeks. Hoping for some good advice here:

michelle&paul

Same here. She naps wonderfully on my chest but once I lay her down she only sleeps for 5 minutes, wakes up and fusses.

gnomemom

We elevated the crib slightly by putting a rolled up blanket under one end of the mattress. Don't elevate too much or your LO will roll down to the bottom! Then, I put rolled up receiving blankets in a U shape under the sheet to make a little nest for LO. The bottom of the U goes right below his butt. I swaddle him and nestle him in there and he sleeps really well.

Also, a white noise machine is really helpful for us. We have an old smartphone that we just use for the "Relax and Sleep" app.

AppleJacks81

No advice yet! I'm right there with ya! Yesterday I did get her to take her first crib nap. I laid my nightshirt down under her so it would maybe smell like me and I wrapped her in her HALO. not sure if it was luck, but she slept.

ArmyWife114

The advice a friend gave me when I was trying to get DS to nap/sleep better in his crib was this:

 You have to be consistent, but that doesn't mean CIO.  Same place for sleep everytime (but could do Pack n play and crib, since they're pretty similar, if you wanted).  And you kind of have to take what you get in terms of them napping. If she's still trying to nap, but her back in the crib and try again.   From personal experience, it takes work, but it's really worth it.  There will be days (and maybe even weeks) of fussiness about sleeping in the crib, but it gets better!

I'm pretty sure there is a wonder week around 7-8 weeks, so she may be extra fussy in general.   If you haven't heard of wonder weeks, I'd def check it out, it helped me understand DS's periods of unexplained fussiness.  

sschwege

kbruington:

Consistency is always important when teaching babies to sleep but at that age, they don't understand so you just need to make them comfortable. The crib seemed ideal to me when my LO was that age too but I think it's just big and scary to them. Most babies don't sleep all that well stretched out or flat on their back so it's harder to stay asleep. They like being cuddled and want to be held, that's normal.

At that age, I let my LO sleep on me, in his swing, a pillow, bascially anywhere that was safe and he would sleep! Sleep in general is more important than where they actually do it. There's plenty of time to transition to the crib. Just my opinion

Well said.  

DD took most of her naps in the Moby wrap until she was 4 months old.  That's when we started really working with her to sleep in a bed for naps.  When you think about how young they are and what they are used to (the womb), who can blame them for struggling to sleep on their own?  As they get older and more mature, they don't startle as much and learn to self soothe, then it gets easier. 

Plus just keep telling yourself every baby is different.  What works for one kid might not work for yours.  Case and point, DS has been falling asleep and staying asleep on his own since the beginning.  Same mother, different kids.  But in the end the result will be the same, the first few months are all about survival IMO. 

st.augbride

sschwege:

kbruington:

Consistency is always important when teaching babies to sleep but at that age, they don't understand so you just need to make them comfortable. The crib seemed ideal to me when my LO was that age too but I think it's just big and scary to them. Most babies don't sleep all that well stretched out or flat on their back so it's harder to stay asleep. They like being cuddled and want to be held, that's normal.

At that age, I let my LO sleep on me, in his swing, a pillow, bascially anywhere that was safe and he would sleep! Sleep in general is more important than where they actually do it. There's plenty of time to transition to the crib. Just my opinion

Well said.  

DD took most of her naps in the Moby wrap until she was 4 months old.  That's when we started really working with her to sleep in a bed for naps.  When you think about how young they are and what they are used to (the womb), who can blame them for struggling to sleep on their own?  As they get older and more mature, they don't startle as much and learn to self soothe, then it gets easier. 

Plus just keep telling yourself every baby is different.  What works for one kid might not work for yours.  Case and point, DS has been falling asleep and staying asleep on his own since the beginning.  Same mother, different kids.  But in the end the result will be the same, the first few months are all about survival IMO. 

Thanks, guys. This has been my mantra too for the most part. I'm just having trouble with nights actually. Every night seems to be different. Some nights she sleeps ok in the RNP (what we've been using so far) and others she refuses and will only sleep on me or next to me. And some nights, like last night, none of the above until about 2am when she finally decided to fall asleep. I just wonder if starting the crib now would be better in the long run for the night sleep situation. I actually love having her nap on me in the carrier, but I also am exhausted from the night...

saturdaynightdoubletree

As pp's have said, consistency is big. All three of my kids have slept in a crib since day one with the exception of some naps. With DD1 I held her a lot and she took a lot of naps in my arms. A newborns sleep cycles are much shorter, so even though LO is waking up sooner in the crib, it doesn't mean nap time is over. Try finding ways to soothe LO and put them right back down. Example: give a pacifier, pick LO up and rock for a minute and then put LO back down, sing a song, rub LOs back in the crib, etc. GL!