Falling asleep troubles

kmornelas29 · May 2013

My LO lately has been fighting the urge to be rocked to sleep. When I swaddle her n rock her like I have always done she cries n cries and acts hungry even if I just fed her. I notice she does this more when she hasnt had her good naps in for the day.

Then.. If I just lay her in her crib alone, she stops crying, she kicks out of her swaddle, squirms around about, makes tons of noises, and will put herself to sleep.

She only initially does this when she first goes down for the night, but will let me swaddle, rock, etc as the night goes on.

I just leave the room, turn on her video monitor and watch her. I feel like such a bad mom letting her sit in her crib, alone at 5 weeks, to put herself to sleep, but she seems to like it better. I tend to guilt trip myself over things like this. I say, " she is so little, and I left her in that room alone to sleep by herself." Etc, etc

Anyone else's LO like this? Am I horrible for doing this? I don't believe in the CIO method so I would get her if she cried, but I feel sooo bad. Should I? What would you do?

tig594 · May 2013

At DD's photo shoot last weekend I saw them do something that I actually tried last night when Aria wouldn't go back to sleep after her 1:30 a.m. bottle/burp/diaper change. I softly ran my finger over her forehead and down her nose a few times. She was asleep in less than 30 seconds. It didn't work quite that fast during the photo shoot...but then again she wasn't in a familiar environment so maybe that is why.

Hope it helps!

iumegan716 · May 2013

DS is like that sometimes. He seems to almost prefer to be left in the crib to fall asleep on his own. When he is like that, he is so squirmy in my arms and that is my queue to just put him in the crib and let him fall asleep on his own.

It may be hard on you now, but it is a great habit for your LO to develop!

=Lee=B · May 2013

My 8 week old puts herself to sleep in her crib.

We hold her a lot during the day but at first I still felt really bad just putting her awake in her crib. Sometimes she lies there looking around chatting for almost 45 minutes before she falls asleep...she never fusses or cries.

as much as I want to go cuddle and rock her I realize she is content and this will hopefully set the path for her being able to calm herself at night if she wakes...and make bedtimes much easier later on...so I go with it. But it is hard, because she seems so tiny and I just want to cuddle her asleep!

CrazyMary77 · May 2013

I think that's great! Of course, not to be a debbie downer, but this could change. We had a few days where I could put LO sleepy in her crib, give her a paci, caress her a little, and she would fall asleep. However, recently we've been having the opposite problem, where our LO is so fussy and cries a lot between 9pm and midnight. She wants to eat more frequently/larger amounts, and she just wants to be held and bounced/rocked. We haven't tried CIO yet because she's too young for it. I'm hopeful that this is just a phase and she'll go back to being able to put herself to sleep!