Transitioning to the Crib

Okay, so my DS is a pretty good sleeper, he sleeps in the pack and play in our living room, goes down without too much of a fuss, eats once in the night and then sleeps unti about 5:30 a.m., I think it won't be so hard to move him up into his crib. He is only down there now so his sister does not wake him with her crying upstairs. But the only place that DD will sleep is in my arms or in the bed next to me. She has gotten better about laying in the bed not in my arms, and on a good night she gets up once, goes back to sleep in the bed without incident, but on a bad night will end up in my arms from 2:30-5:30. I really want her out of my bed as I don't get good sleep with her in there as I fear rolling over her or something crazy like that. So I guess my questions are:

1. When should I try to make the transition, once she reaches a certain age or when she is STTN?

2. How do I go about making the tranistion? Right now if I try to lay her in her crib dead asleep, she wakes up within 20 minutes and screams. If I lay her in their drowsy but awake she screams immeadiately.

Thanks!!

 

I just moved DS from the swing to the crib a week ago.. DD i have not started yet.

Just to let you know.. My older DD slept in my arms until about 3 months and then we did CIO and there was no problems at all. She slept thru the night pretty much from the begining.

Make sure she is swaddled tight and get a sleep positioner that you can put her into. It helped mine think that they were being "held". You just have to make sure its tight against their bodies..

 

I never had mine sleeping with me, but we did have them sleeping in the bouncy seats until 3-4 months. My advice is to do whatever works at this point. (Though do practice safe co-sleeping -- no blankets, pillows, etc.) It will be a LOT easier to transition them to cribs when they are a little older, so unless you're really desperate to have her out of your bed right now, I'd say just wait it out. In the meantime, have you tried a cosleeper, rather than having her actually in your bed? You might sleep better that way since you won't worry as much about rolling over on her.

You could also try putting her down asleep in something other than the crib -- the bouncy seat or swing. Maybe it's not so much that she needs to be held, as that she just doesn't want to be lying flat.

 

Right now, you are in a tough time. Ours slept in carseats or swings until about a week and a half ago and they are 4 months old. We just transitioned them one night cold turkey. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They woke more often at first but do better now (one does great, the other does OK). We still swaddle one but we swaddle the other with an arm out and she learned to suck her thumb as has since slept 11-13 hours straight ever since (only 3 days). The other seems to want to suck her thumb really bad but gets mad b/c she can't figure it out so I still swaddle her and give her a paci b/c if her arm is out, she will knock the paci out. We have never let either CIO and one has learned to self-soothe (so far, I am afraid I will jinx myself!) the other, not yet ... but we'll see! We have finally been able to put them down drowsy and they will fall asleep (most of the time) ... I think it is a matter of time for you. Your babies are still really young. I can't tell you how many times we slept with babies in our arms at that age. I would let them fall asleep nursing and just sleep in my nursing chair with one ... then switch when the other would wake ... etc ... finally we learned the trick of putting them in the cradle swings and that worked for a while ... then they would sleep in carseats ... and now, finally in the crib. Good luck ... gotta go ... screaming is coming from the nursery ... I knew I would jinx myself! HA HA

 

Oh I so know what you are going thru! I have been beside myself and so has DH with ways to cope with them not wanting to sleep anywhere but in our arms. I slept on the couch for the first 6 weeks until I just couldn't stand not sleeping in my bed. We are usually trying something new every night to see what works best for us. One night they like the swing the next they don't. They never liked sleeping in the car seat. He will sleep in the bassinet for a few hours but then that's it. She will eventually sleep in the boppy pillow between us but that is after hours of being held. It used to be that I could handle them myself because it was usually just her who would fuss now both of them do and DH has to help...he is so tired. He usually only ges 4 hours of sleep and then has to work 10 hours a day plus Saturday. I know now that in the beginning she never liked to lay flat because of the reflux issue but now she's so used to being held that I can not break her of it just yet. So know that I am there with you. It's normal for us to be up until 1 am and then again at 3 am till 7 am (usually me). It's not fun right now. TS keeps me looking to the brighter side.

 

Oh good--I felt bad that my boys slept in bouncy seats or swings every night up until just over 3 months old! They sleep well in the bassinets now and we plan on transitioning to the cribs when they get their monitors off. Its just too much of a hassle going up and down stairs twice a night with 2 babies, 2 monitors, and 12 feet of cords!

 

We went cold turkey to the crib. We used sleep positioners and swaddling the best we could to make them feel secure. The first night was not so bad and it just got better. It was about 12 weeks.