All Things Sleep!

irohspupil · February 2016

I'm turning this thread into something we can all participate in. Have a rant, rave, or looking for advice about your LO's sleep? Talk about it here!

OP:
After co-sleeping with LO for almost 3 months with no problems, she fell off the bed this morning. I've called the pediatrician's office and LO is on a 24hr watch for possible head injury. She's acting completely normal... hopefully it stays that way.

I can't let this happen again and since I have to stay up all night with her anyway, I'll be moving her to her crib. I have had zero success every time I've tried so far, but it has to work out now. For those of you who had to make similar transitions to the crib, how many nights did it take before your LO was finally STTN in their crib? LO STTN when we cosleep, but she'd wake up every fifteen minutes when alone in her crib.

Thoughts are also appreciated if you don't have any advice for the transition. I feel so incredibly shitty that I let this happen to her.

gadawgmom · February 2016

Aw don't worry momma. Accidents happen. We are starting the crib transition tonight also. So I will be following this thread.

BabyBean815 · February 2016

Awww Agreed that accidents happen. Don't beat yourself up over it.

LO transitioned to his crib at like 4 months but it was a completely random thing for us. For the longest time, we would hold him and he would fall asleep and he'd just sleep and chill and we'd move him to his RnP and he'd sleep. Then, suddenly he didn't want to have anything to do with being held to sleep and we had no choice but to put him in his crib. We were confused, he was confused, and we all cried about it together. LOL.

Anyway, I think it just took a couple of nights for him to get the hang of it, but the "put down" part was the hardest part. It definitely involved frustrated crying on his part and a lot of soothing on our part. He is completely used to sleeping in his crib now and falls asleep and stays asleep with little intervention most nights (knock on wood).

What helped was (1) a consistent bedtime routine in his room; (2) me sitting in his room in the dark while he figured out how to fall asleep (so I could soothe on demand and he knew I was nearby), and (3) making his crib a little more welcoming. I know that bumpers and loveys are a heated topic to some, but I found that LO appreciates having a lovey to hold on to when he needs a friend at night. I also use breathable bumpers with animals on them and I think it helps make his crib a little more cozy and less intimidating, so when he wakes up in the middle of the night, it's not so scary because he has his friend and is in a comfy space. (but I know these are both red flags for SIDS so feel free to disregard this piece of advice).

irohspupil · February 2016

Thank you both.

We don't have bumpers on her crib, but she has this little cat doll with 4sq inch blankie attached. Maybe I can put that under my shirt for a couple hours before bedtime so it smells like me and let her sleep with that.

irohspupil · February 2016

Well, LO slept okay the first couple hours. Stirred once that I needed to go in and touch her face (I don't know why, but she sleeps best when I'm close to her face or when something is up against her face) until she fell back asleep.
Then she woke up fussing. I'd get her back to sleep, but she'd wake up every time she hit the crib. After an hour and a half of trying to put her back in the crib, I asked my husband to try. Maybe she just didn't want *me* to let go of her in the crib. I went in there about twenty minutes after handing her to my husband, and they're both asleep in the recliner. So I guess I'll just hang out in the living room and make sure she's okay every twenty minutes (concussion watch).

Maybe I should just focus on her sleeping as long as she'll stand it in the crib then move her into my bed for a couple of nights and gently try to stretch out her time in the crib in some sort of progression.
ETA: Or sleep in her room and bring her next to me instead of going back to the bed. I need to avoid the bed.

Thrashn · February 2016

Read 12 hours of sleep by 12 weeks old. It works for older babies (up to 18mo). By 2mo she was in a crib in her own room with white noise and recorded sounds of me breathing (mommy breathing is the good part of co-sleeping). One main point that will help based on your post is putting baby down *awake*. It spells everything out (how long to let them cry:3-5min, what soothing methods help them learn to soothe themselves, etc.) it should be called "giving your baby the gift of sleep".

irohspupil · February 2016

To be clear, I'm not at all interested in trying to get LO to fall asleep on her own at bedtime. I don't mind giving her a bottle then walking around the room with her for however long it takes to put her down. I just want to be able to put her in her crib and expect her to sleep as well as she does when she's sleeping right next to me.
Right now, it is so hard for me to let her cry for any amount of time without jumping to her rescue, so I'm not sure I could stomach any sort of CIO method, gentle or not.

KateDerek · February 2016

We have coslept the majority of the time with all of our three children, this third LO is no exception. We just recently, when she hit six months, put her in her crib at night. Before that she has been in the cosleeper next to our bed, or with me. Let's be real, it's with me the majority of the time!

The crib is going okay. She does wake up though, last night it was midnight and the night before 2:30. Once she wakes, I take her to bed. I really need to nurse her and then place her back in her crib, but I just cave and go back to my warm bed every time!

I also put her lovey in there with her, as well as a giraffe (hard) that plays music. We have breathable bumpers.

As for the falling, I haven't had any babies fall off the bed while they were sleeping with me since I hold on to them and sort of cradle them when we sleep. However, I have had my older two fall off the bed when I had laid them down for naps on a bed. Even with pillows they still managed to roll off. So, it happens to the best of us!

irohspupil · February 2016

@KateDerek LO moved around on the bed SO much in her sleep that it was really hard to keep her cradled in my arms. She also would scoot and scoot towards me, and I'd shift a little bit so she had her space. I'd spend a lot of each night gently pushing her back to the center of the bed between me and DH. The other night I just let her scoot too much while I moved away from her too much. Didn't realize I had moved down and she was sliding head first off the bed

I've tried using my giraffe that plays music and lights up, but LO just wants to play with the toy; she'll cry as soon as the light goes off even though the music keeps playing.
I'm considering getting bumpers. She likes to have her face pressed into something when she's sleeping... but I'm worried about the increased risk of SIDS that comes with them. But really... pretty sure the cosleeping I was doing was increasing the risk of SIDS more than bumpers would :-S

momma2char · February 2016

Mine STTN when we coslept but hasn't since we moved her to her crib 2 months ago- she woke up 2-3 times a night until recently. For the transition I made myself available for comfort and had something that smelled like me in her crib (she slept on top of one of my blankets tucked into the crib firmly). A lovey could also be introduced if you sleep with it for some time to make it smell like you? Anyway though, recently she's discovered that she's waking up in her crib and it is not the same as when she fell asleep in my arms or feeding and it scares her so she is up multiple times a night (hourly at least). We had to start sleep training so she is used to falling asleep where she will be waking up between her sleep cycles so she can resettle herself easily without a huge change in environment!

ETA: we are not doing a "CIO" method but there is crying because it's a hard thing for her to learn, but I'm happy to say she is catching on quick. We are using the pick up/put down method so we are right there with her to comfort her. If in the future you would like to sleep train, if your LO ends up waking up multiple times a night, I would recommend this as a more gentle approach

I hope the transition goes well for you and your little one!

BabyBean815 · February 2016

@micshi If she likes having her face against something, you could consider a breathable lovey (like an Anais and Aden muslin lovey).

We're currently going through some middle of the night activities, such as night babbling (FUN). DS wakes up and just babbles to himself (and to us through the monitor). Sometimes he sounds perfectly content and sometimes he sounds a little annoyed, but he doesn't necessarily cry, just babbles. Last night, this happened at like 1 a.m. for a bit, and then from 4:30 to 5:30 this morning. Anyone else dealing with this? Of course, I'll take a babbling baby over a crying baby any day of the week, but I would love it if he shifted his babbling to day time hours so we could both get good sleeps!

Also. Night Poops. Oy. Wish they'd stop.

irohspupil · February 2016

@BabyBean815 Thank you for the suggestion. Looking those up now on Amazon!

irohspupil · March 2016

LO slept 9p-5a in her crib last night (then another hour and a half with me on a mattress on the floor)! She was exhausted from spending the day at each grandparent's house, and I ended up putting a blanket she couldn't move over her lower half. I know tonight might not be as good, but it feels like huge progress!

BabyBean815 · March 2016

micshi said:

LO slept 9p-5a in her crib last night (then another hour and a half with me on a mattress on the floor)! She was exhausted from spending the day at each grandparent's house, and I ended up putting a blanket she couldn't move over her lower half. I know tonight might not be as good, but it feels like huge progress!

Yayy!! Fingers crossed for continued progress!

Amarch1123 · March 2016

I think being consistent is key as well as sleep training because like another poster stated when we would put her to sleep outside the crib she would wake up and cry a lot more not knowing where she was. But even with her being able to put herself to sleep there are going to be hiccups. Even now 3 months later, many nights she sleeps through the night but other nights she might wake up once or twice wanting to be soothed. Thankfully for us that just means, getting up, popping the paci back in her mouth, turning back on her sound machine (we trained her to associate the sound machine with bedtime/naptime), and giving a pat on the bottom and she's right back to sleep. Its tiring but don't give in, keep her in the crib, sooth her, and walk away, then repeat repeat repeat. lol We have yet to have a consistent week where she sttn every single night, but I think that its just what it is for now. There were many times I wanted to just pick her up and bring her in with us (once or twice I def did) but I realized it wasn't helping anyone so I do my best to remain consistent. It gets better with time, and the time between having to go in and soothe will lengthen. Good luck mama!

psherman42wwsa · March 2016

BabyBean815 said:

@micshi If she likes having her face against something, you could consider a breathable lovey (like an Anais and Aden muslin lovey).

We're currently going through some middle of the night activities, such as night babbling (FUN). DS wakes up and just babbles to himself (and to us through the monitor). Sometimes he sounds perfectly content and sometimes he sounds a little annoyed, but he doesn't necessarily cry, just babbles. Last night, this happened at like 1 a.m. for a bit, and then from 4:30 to 5:30 this morning. Anyone else dealing with this? Of course, I'll take a babbling baby over a crying baby any day of the week, but I would love it if he shifted his babbling to day time hours so we could both get good sleeps!

Also. Night Poops. Oy. Wish they'd stop.

My son also wakes up and starts trying to talk during the night. Sometimes he goes back to sleep on his own, sometimes it turns into crying and I have to intervene. Its probably just because they are learning a new skill.

irohspupil · March 2016

lrwardrop said:

BabyBean815 said:

@micshi If she likes having her face against something, you could consider a breathable lovey (like an Anais and Aden muslin lovey).

We're currently going through some middle of the night activities, such as night babbling (FUN). DS wakes up and just babbles to himself (and to us through the monitor). Sometimes he sounds perfectly content and sometimes he sounds a little annoyed, but he doesn't necessarily cry, just babbles. Last night, this happened at like 1 a.m. for a bit, and then from 4:30 to 5:30 this morning. Anyone else dealing with this? Of course, I'll take a babbling baby over a crying baby any day of the week, but I would love it if he shifted his babbling to day time hours so we could both get good sleeps!

Also. Night Poops. Oy. Wish they'd stop.

My son also wakes up and starts trying to talk during the night. Sometimes he goes back to sleep on his own, sometimes it turns into crying and I have to intervene. Its probably just because they are learning a new skill.

L Bug actually did this last night. She didn't babble, just got up on all fours and started rocking back and forth. I gave her a bottle, thinking that she was hungry since she had gotten one less bottle that day than usual, but she stayed awake.
Eventually, I gave her a few more ounces. She would close her eyes and try to sleep but I could tell she was uncomfortable with me holding her. Tried putting her in the crib, nope. I put her on the mattress on the floor with me and she rocked on her hands and knees some more and babbled just a little bit before passing out. Made me hopeful that she's learning to put herself to sleep.

atthemoment · March 2016

Ds is still waking up constantly at night maybe 5 times. Im reading the no cry sleep solution so hoping it works! He has never STTN at 7 months and since i started co sleeping around the holidays its gotten worse! The boob is the only thing that puts him to sleep.. hoping for some good sleep soon since the lack of sleep is really starting to catch up with me. Any moms have successfully changed the nursing to sleep association?

psherman42wwsa · March 2016

atthemoment said:

Ds is still waking up constantly at night maybe 5 times. Im reading the no cry sleep solution so hoping it works! He has never STTN at 7 months and since i started co sleeping around the holidays its gotten worse! The boob is the only thing that puts him to sleep.. hoping for some good sleep soon since the lack of sleep is really starting to catch up with me. Any moms have successfully changed the nursing to sleep association?

I also read that book and for some reason it didn't help me too much. Changing the nursing to sleep association is hard... I tried to make sure I was feeding him during the day after he woke up, then play, then sleep. For the bedtime routine its bath, bottle, book then bed. For us, giving a bottle at bedtime works better because I can see how much he ate and I know when he's done. I feed him with the lights on and I talk to him and play with his feet while he's eating to keep him awake. Then the book. Then I put him in his crib. It took some time but now he has it down pat. This took a lot of effort and my son didn't sleep through the night until he was 6 months. (now 7 months old). When he wakes up in the middle of the night, I let him stir in his crib for 10 minutes before I go to soothe him (some nights my patience is low and I only wait a minute or two). Now he is able to self soothe back to sleep on his own in a couple minutes but it definitely took some work.

long story short, try a bottle at bedtime

irohspupil · March 2016

@lrwardrop do you leave the overhead light on or do you have a dim lamp? We currently read a book in the living room, then I take LO to her room with the lights off, give her a bottle and let her fall asleep with it. The problem is that it's not a good routine when she isn't hungry at bedtime. Just thinking of switching things up.

atthemoment · March 2016

Ive wondered if giving a bottle of BM instead of nursing to sleep would help.. ill have to give that a go! Thanks

irohspupil · March 2016

@atthemoment I hope it works out!

psherman42wwsa · March 2016

micshi said:

@lrwardrop do you leave the overhead light on or do you have a dim lamp? We currently read a book in the living room, then I take LO to her room with the lights off, give her a bottle and let her fall asleep with it. The problem is that it's not a good routine when she isn't hungry at bedtime. Just thinking of switching things up.

I leave on a bright light. He gets drowsy while he's drinking his bottle and would easily fall asleep if I let him. Making sure they are hungry is important so they have a full feeding before bed. I feed him food at 6pm and by 7:15pm he's ready for his bottle. There were a couple times when my LO didn't finish the bottle or only ate a couple ounces because he had more food at 6pm and he actually slept the same.

ctraci74 · March 2016

I'm having an issue with crib sleeping also. He'll fall asleep with his night time bottle then I lay him down in his crib, then within 30-60 mins he starts crying. I wait a few minutes then check on him, give pacifier and shush, sometimes rub cheek or pat on back. He'll start to fall back asleep then it happens again. I try not to go back in his room but he eventually begins to scream. Any more suggestions to getting LO to sleep in his crib? By the way, he is 6.5 months. I need sleep to function at work (my students have commented because some days I have such a hard time keeping my eyes open during small groups)!! HELP

irohspupil · March 2016

ctraci74 said:

I'm having an issue with crib sleeping also. He'll fall asleep with his night time bottle then I lay him down in his crib, then within 30-60 mins he starts crying. I wait a few minutes then check on him, give pacifier and shush, sometimes rub cheek or pat on back. He'll start to fall back asleep then it happens again. I try not to go back in his room but he eventually begins to scream. Any more suggestions to getting LO to sleep in his crib? By the way, he is 6.5 months. I need sleep to function at work (my students have commented because some days I have such a hard time keeping my eyes open during small groups)!! HELP

I know this may be a silly question, but have you tried giving LO another bottle? Sometimes my LO does this same thing. An hour later, she is hungry again. This especially happens when she doesn't get as much to eat during the day as usual

ctraci74 · March 2016

He's getting food around 7-7:30 then a 7oz bottle around 9. Didn't think about that. When I break down and put him in bed with me, he almost immediately falls asleep.

irohspupil · March 2016

ctraci74 said:

He's getting food around 7-7:30 then a 7oz bottle around 9. Didn't think about that. When I break down and put him in bed with me, he almost immediately falls asleep.

I know it's tough

My LO is waking me up 3-6 times a night since I stopped bringing her into bed with me. I make sure she isn't too hot or too cold, full, and has her pacifier within reach. I also have a loud noise machine going on. Some nights she needs me to pick her up and rock her back to sleep. Others she just needs the pacifier closer (or it has fallen off the crib). Any chance he could have an ear infection? Or maybe he's teething? Those make my LO sleep like shit.

I really wish there were simple solutions to babies sleeping at night so that we can function in our moving society.

You may not be able to find a solution. Maybe it'll work out on its own.

I hope you get some rest soon.

ctraci74 · March 2016

He just had is 6 month check up so health wise everything is fine. I did noticed a second tooth broke through the skin today.
Thanks, I hope this is resolved soon.

BabyBean815 · March 2016

We are going through the strangest thing. LO has been a champion napper for the past few months. We do a mini bedtime routine, I put him in his crib, he fusses around getting comfy with his lovey and pacifier, and falls asleep.
This weekend, though, he has had screaming fits for three of his naps to the point of needing serious comforting. I don't know if it's separation anxiety or what (I'm pretty good about reading his sleep cues so I don't think he's overtired) but it's killing me. He's a handful of a baby so the whole "easy to put down" thing has been my only bragging right, and now I'm feeling frustrated and perplexed.

Bickey11 · April 2016

We transitioned to crib from a bassinet & Rock n play that we alternated between until 5 months due to multiple respiratory infections and severe reflux. I can honestly say we still struggle. The openness of the crib causes him to jump and move constantly. He wakes, drops his pacifier, cries. We're constantly soothing him back to sleep every 30-60 minutes. Hell sleep like a rock from 8-11 pm, but after that he's waking constantly. A memory foam topper for babies has helped, but we've pretty much given up hope after 2 months of a wakeless night. I feed him between 11-12 right before I go-to bed and he still will wake up at least once a night where the only way to get him back down is to feed him.

Mack2342 · April 2016

We transitioned LO from rock n play to bassinet then to crib. We moved bassinet to his room to allow him time to get used to his room before we put him in crib. He was not STTN at that point so once we put him in crib we did sleep training. My LO goes to bed awake and has since about 4 months old but would wake every hour. I have a consistent bedtime routine and then I tracked his nighttime feeds which I realized he was just using me as a snack machine only nursing for about 2 minutes before falling asleep. He was actually only eating twice at 1am and 5am. So I stopped offering the boob except for those times. When he would wake I would give him his pacifier which is a wubnub. After a couple nights I stopped running into his room and gave him time to figure it out. Which he did. He now grabs his binky and puts self back to sleep. Sometimes he does the nighttime babbling for a bit but eventually puts self back to sleep. We used the book Sleep Easy Solution. I used their techniques for napping as well. It took only a few days before he was doing better. Of course he has an occasional bad night or nap but generally we are all sleeping better!

Knottie1459358632 · May 2016

We are just shy of 10 months and we just had two nights in a row of 7-545! I'm not keeping my hopes up that this is permanent, but Who knows!! I feel like a new woman

atthemoment · May 2016

Knottie1459358632 i know you struggled with sleep like me and DS still do. What did you do differently? Congrats!

Knottie1459358632 · June 2016

Thanks! So we started off by switching his night time bottles (2-3 usually) from formula to just water. That didn't really make a difference because he totally loves water. After a week of that we took away the bottle all together and only rubbed his back when he cried. We did the controlled crying method (wait 5 minutes to go in then go back in at 10-15-20+ minutes if needed). Pretty much the cio method. After 4 days I didn't feel like we were getting anywhere because he was relentless with the crying, and we were going to go back to the water but he surprised us by sleeping all night. Im not totally convinced it was our doing but I'll take it!

psherman42wwsa · June 2016

congrats on finally getting some sleep! My LO didn't sleep through the night until 6 months. It literally is life changing! I can't believe anyone can last this long waking up every couple hours.. I literally thought I was going to go insane. It takes a toll that's for sure...

atthemoment · June 2016

@lrwardrop i know lol we are up multiple times im lucky if i get a 3 hour span of uninterrupted sleep but in still trucking along. I know its partially my fault as i fear him crying and all so i nurse him back to sleep each time which resulted in my co sleep situation. Tonight im putting him in his crib for the first time in months wish me luck!

psherman42wwsa · June 2016

Good luck! !!

princesslockness · June 2016

@atthemoment you could try putting him in a basket or something that is closer to your bed. We put L in a short and wide laundry basket on the chair in our room. He learned to sleep on his own.

Knottie1459358632 · June 2016

Good luck! I was the same way, I'd rush in within a minute of hearing a cry and created an association of needing to have a bottle to go back to sleep. Letting him cry was the hardest thing, and definitely created a little bickering between me and hubby. But he's sleeping 10x better now that he is realizing he doesn't need a bottle to fall back asleep. All my fingers and toes are crossed for you!

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