Laying down drowsy or nearly sleeping infant into bassinet/crib
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Anonymous
| FTM and looking for any tips on how to successfully transfer a drowsy 3 month old into their crib or bassinet? Every time I try to do this (multiple times a day for naps and bedtime), they wake themselves when their head reaches the crib and crying ensues. They end up fully waking up and I begin the cycle again of trying to soothe, rock, nurse them back to drowsy. Rise and repeat for almost 45 mins. I'm at my wits end! |
Anonymous
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We put a shirt or blanket or towel into the dryer for a couple minutes, then lay it down in the crib. Then right before putting the baby down in the crib, we pick up the laundry.
We think it worked because we put them down on a warm surface. |
Anonymous
| This was the magic feature of the Snoo for me, but at three months you’re probably far enough in that the money doesn’t make sense. What happens if you let the baby fuss and settle for a few minutes? |
Anonymous
| You just keep trying until it works or the baby is ready to sleep train |
Anonymous
| Are you feeding when they wake up or before sleep? |
Anonymous
Oh sorry, i saw you nurse them to sleep. I really believe that’s the key. If you feed when they wake up, and use swaddling and rocking to get to sleep, you get to independent sleep much faster. The good thing is it doesn’t really matter after 3-4 months if you’re going to sleep train, because sleep training seems to help fed-before-sleep babies to catch up (possibly with more crying, temporarily). |
Anonymous
| Newborn care specialist here- How have you been putting the baby down for naps previously? Have you been rocking or shushing and letting them nap in your arms? If so, they’re used to sleeping cozy with you and it’s hard to transition them to drowsy awake in bed, because they don’t know how to self soothe. If you’ve been holding for most naps or baby wearing, I suggest letting the baby fall asleep in your arms and once they’re out completely, put them in bed. It’s going to be hard to transition to putting them down awake, if they’re used to being put to sleep in a snoo, rocking or being held. Let the baby wake up in their crib and eventually you can start holding them less before putting them down. |
Anonymous
| For many, awake but drowsy is a unicorn state that doesn’t exist. I just nursed my kids to deep asleep and transferred them then. |
Anonymous
| NCS again- Forgot to mention that if the baby is being nursed to sleep, you can’t just put them down awake. They are used to you comforting them to sleep with the breast. I always feed after nap, for this reason. |
Anonymous
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Join the club....
I held my daughter for naps for 10 months. With my son, I tried to sleep train him at 4 months. Actually, before that when he was like a month old, I had some success putting him down in a swaddle, but that ended after like 2 weeks. Anyway, neither approach worked. I am mystified by people who can put infants down for naps. I'm pregnant with 3rd baby now and not even going to try. I just find it less emotionally draining to just wear them or lay down with them until they are down to 2 or 1 naps. I can't take that will-they-stay-asleep anxiety like 6 times a day for all of a young infant's naps. |
Anonymous
Did you do feed before sleep or after waking? |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
+1. Even if I was able to transfer him asleep, he always woke up at 32 minutes after one sleep cycle unless he was in my arms. In my arms he would nap hours, which he needed. At 9 months I did successfully nap sleep train him in the crib, I guess he was just developmentally ready. |
Anonymous
| We did drowsy but awake from day one..You basically wait until you know they’re tired, then put them down before they actually drift off. They might fuss for a few mins but then will fall asleep. We did use white noise and have the room dark so those associations probably helped. |
Anonymous
+2 |