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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
rsheehan10
member
Drowsy but awake
rsheehan10
member
Anyone master this yet? We have started the transition to the crib this week from the rnp. Only thing is we have to rock him until he is out cold. Many times he wakes up after being put down so we start the process over. He is swaddled with white noise on as well. Do I have to drop the swaddle in order for him to self soothe? I don't want to sleep train as of yet due to him having a swaddle and the crib is new to him. However he used to sttn 10 plus hours now he is up every 3 at night. We value our sleep as well so we put him in the rnp after his first stretch so we can get decent sleep.
Sorry about the vent. Any advice to this would be appreciated. Also success stories will be very helpful and give me hope that this will get better!
Sorry about the vent. Any advice to this would be appreciated. Also success stories will be very helpful and give me hope that this will get better!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Drowsy but awake
So far so good for us. Ginny sucks her thumb, which helps immensely. She never liked swaddling so we didn't have to deal with that. My son SUCKED at this for a long time, but eventually learned to put himself to sleep -- again, with the thumb.
With kids, you just need to remember that they'll do it when they're ready and it won't take forever -- even though it feels that way sometimes.
Ginny DX 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Charlie DX Specific Antibody Deficiency & ASD
DS will be 4 months on Saturday. To be honest, some nights DBA works well, and others it does not. He is a thumb sucker, which helps. Tonight is one of those nights that it didn't work well. He's been crying in his crib, and I've been going in every few minutes to soothe him. We transitioned to the crib about 3 weeks ago, and had to ditch the swaddle because he started to roll. We use a sleep sack, which is fine, because he has access to his thumbs!
He used to STTN in the RNP, until we transitioned him (and now I think we're probably up against the 4 month sleep regression, too), so now he has been waking up once per night and at that point we move him into the RNP to finish the night bc he falls asleep so much faster in that. I don't want to have to do it this way forever, but it is a temporary solution that gives us all a little more sleep.
Tonight he cried for 20 minutes, which I think is the longest he's ever gone. We just got back from being out of town all weekend so I think he was overtired and really thrown off by everything. We will not start him out for the night in the RNP, because I am determined to get him used to the crib. On a typical night, he will fuss for up to 10 minutes (fuss, not cry) and then I can hear him suck his thumb on the monitor and then he falls asleep.
That RNP has been amazing for us, but I am so worried about it becoming a bad habit (because we will sometimes rock him to sleep, or drowsiness, in it), combined with the fact that he can't stay in it forever. With my next baby, I don't know if I even want to use it. I've had so much stress over the whole transition, even though I know we have had it much easier than others.
So, since he cried for a while tonight, and is very close to being 4 months, I think we probably just started our own little modified CIO. Not something I ever thought I would do, but I can't rock this kid to sleep forever!
Our daughter has been content with this since birth. She was only swaddled the first week and a bit. She does take a soother but once she spits it out she doesn't want it back till morning and she's just mastering her thumb so that will be there when she wants it.
She turned 4months today and the last week she was regressing so I was putting her down awake and hovering over/near the crib for a few days till she was asleep. She seems to be getting back to normal now though. So I currently put her down then sit in the room away from crib playing on my phone, if she fusses I go kiss her on the head and go back to sit. She seems content with this.
She is still up every 2hrs to feed all night. But she gulps down a full feed and is back in crib within 10min so not a big deal. I don't leave her to fuss/cry in her crib and since she is happy to put herself to sleep 90% of the time when she fusses it is because she needs comfort which only takes a couple seconds.
Can you try and arms out swaddle? He'll need his hands to self soothe. We stopped swaddling before 2 weeks when we realized she very much needed her hands at her face to soothe. She strokes her cheeks...she still does that when she's not sucking her thumb.
Maybe try putting him in crib but standing over it so he can see you. When mine needs comfort I lean in and hug her and kiss her so she feels like she is held but there is no transfer back to disturb her. Once he's used to this it will be easier to slowly do less (just reach a hand in, then just stand looking in etc) this might help phase out the need to pick up and rock etc.
If we do catch him at the right time (before he is overtired), we can put DS in the crib (w/ paci and one arm swaddled) and he will fall asleep on his own. Sometimes we have to go back and put the paci back in, but sometimes he will just lay there quietly and eventually fall asleep. If we miss it and he is too tired, I rock him a little bit just until his eyes close and then put him in.
As far as I know, babies at this age should be going back to sleep within 2 hours of waking. For DS, the time it works best is usually around an hour and a half or an hour & 45 minutes from when we last woke up.
ETA: With DS1 we eventually had to Ferber. With DS2 I would put him in the crib at first but move him to the RNP when he cried in the MOTN. After a couple of days I would pick him up and put him back in the crib, then I stopped picking him up and would just soothe him while he was still in the crib. Eventually, he started sleeping longer stretches in the crib on his own.
Not yet! I still rock Vivi to complete sleep for bedtime and naps and she's in a swaddle in her crib.
I just started reading The No Cry Sleep Solution and I'm going to try those techniques first before CIO. I'm going to try unswaddling first then move on to the drowsy but not fully asleep thing. She sleeps 10+ hours straight right now and I'm loving it so I'm terrified of both things ruining the good thing we have right now but I know it has to be done.
Good luck!!!