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New mom needs advice -- baby hates the bassinet!
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Anonymous
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My baby is 3 weeks old and while she tolerated the bassinet when we were first home, she now hates it! It is so frustrating to get her to sleep and then put her down only to have her start screaming 2 minutes later. She sleeps well at other times of the day when I am holding her, she is flat on my lap, she is in the boppy, etc. Has anybody else dealt with the same thing? Any suggestions? Alternatives? Any advice would be greatly appreciated by this exhausted new mother! |
Anonymous
| do you wrap her? do you use a sleep positioner? or you let her sleep free? |
Anonymous
| Try a wedge that raises her head a bit, and a swaddle-thing (I like the Halo SleepSack swaddle). That's what we did to transition our reflux baby from sleeping only on people to the crib. Good luck, it is so difficult when you can't put them down and get a break. |
Anonymous
| Swaddle her and then try different places for her to sleep (car seat, crib, vibrating chair, swing...whatever you have). Our baby slept peacefully in a moses basket the first few nights home and would also sleep in his bassinet unswaddled. About a week later, the real baby came out. Now he reliably sleeps well swaddled in his vibrating chair. But it took us some trial and error before we figured this out. Under two months, you're not forming any permanent habits...just do what you have to do to get her to sleep. |
Anonymous
| I had a beautiful cradle that I was so excited to use with DD because my mom used it with me. She HATED it - it was too big I think. We got a travel sized pack n play (graco travel light) and she started sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at 3 weeks. It was like an hour maybe in the cradle. Could the space be too big for her? Remember how close her sleeping quarters were just a short while ago... |
Anonymous
| Try the bucket car seat! The tight space is very cozy for them. Our baby hated laying on her back from 4 weeks-16 weeks. Now she loves all the space in her crib! |
Anonymous
| It was the same with us, he was just a snuggler and had a bit of reflux - he ended up sleeping on us or swaddled in the car seat for six weeks. We were all concerned about this, until the pediatrician said, hey, if that's where he wanted to sleep, no problem! Then around six weeks, baby magically started to like the bassinet (we elevated the head of the bassinet slightly). Then he happily went into his crib at 12 weeks, and we just got him out of his swaddle at 6 months! Nothing stays the same for long. Just try all of the various baby sleeping receptacles until you find one that works, and don't worry if the baby seems folded up or scrunched - he was all crunched up in the womb not long ago, they're used to it! |
Anonymous
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DON'T PUT YOUR BABY TO SLEEP IN THE CAR SEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! car seats are for THE CAR!!!
It's too tight to keep them there for long stretches of time so their lungs can't expand as much as if they were only swaddled. OP try raising the head of the mattress a little, try using sleep positioners so she will have the impression she's being held. |
Anonymous
This doesn't make any sense to me. Their lungs can't expand? My kid happens to hate his car seat, but if yours will sleep there, I'm sure it's fine. I know tons of people that have had their kids sleep in car seats and they are all now happy, healthy, fully breathing toddlers. Do what you have to do the first 8 weeks and don't feel bad about it. |
Anonymous
How do you know what their lung capacity would be if they were not strapped in the car seat? Not only that but when they're that young their head can flop forward or sideways constricting their airways. 9% of such accidents happened in the car while 91% happened when the infant was asleep in the car seat at home. And I would rather stick to research instead of listen to an anonymous person in a online forum who has observed half dozen of babies with no research purposes. Everybody is so scared of SIDS but they stick to the "I know it all" and forget to look into new things. |
Anonymous
| Sleep next to the child. It is bizarre that people expend so much effort fighting nature on this one. Your baby wants to be near you. |
Anonymous
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Our baby also hated the bassinet - and we did swadle her. We tried her crib - she hated that too. In fact, she wouldn't sleep in a crib until she was around 6 mo. So, when the bassinet failed, we put her in a swing. She really like that - wanted to be moving I guess. She had to swing ALL night. Drove me nuts - we went through a TON of batteries - but it was so worth it. We had 2 swings given to us - one was for new infants - the other for older infants. DD slept in same room I did in the infant swing until her next started to drop. Then, I moved her to the older swing that had a different support. We probably usesd the swing 3 - 4 months. Then, we switched DD to the car seat and set the car seat in the crib. Finally, around 6 mo, we moved DD to the crib and propped one side up - she seemed to sleep better in a sloped position. For 4 - 6 weeks she woke all the time. We also found music really calmed her and set a CD to repeat all night.
We checked with our Ped and was told that the swing and car seat were fine - whatever would work at that age. I was afraid DD would always need stimulation to sleep and was worried about that. Fast forward to now - DD is 12 mo. She goes to sleep quickly, puts herself back to sleep during the night, and sleeps 11-12 hrs each night. We have a monitor with a night light, and also the Fisher Price Oceans-Wonder Aquarium that will play music for about 10 minutes. If she wakes in the middle of the night, she'll press the button to play the music and fall back to sleep while it plays. OP - I would say to test and find a solution that works for you. I feel for you - it is hard. Best wishes. |
Anonymous
Nanny here 
I major in early childhood development and the way to deal with a baby who don't sleep or has trouble sleeping is by swaddling,swaying, and then sucking. So you want to swaddle her and rock her and then if she takes a pacifier or anything use that. Also, babies sleep better on their side because in the womb they are constantly in a ball pretty much! They say with these methods any baby can sleep perfectly. |
Anonymous
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OP here -- Thank you for all of the thoughtful responses! We have tried swaddling but she fights it pretty hard because she loves to move her hands around. I was all set to try the car seat tonight (she will sleep in it during the day and loves the car) but am now worried about the one poster who said it limits their lung capacity. We have tried her swing but I am afraid she is too small for it (she just hit 7 pounds)...somebody mentioned a swing specifically for newborns. Can anybody tell me more about that? |
Anonymous
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12:11 PP here - We used a Papasan Cradle Swing for our newborn. She weighed 7 lb 14 oz at birth - and we started her on the swing within a week or two. I doubt she was over 8 lb at that point. This type of swing can lay the baby in a sleeping position.
We used one almost like the Fisher Price Nature's Touch Baby Papasan Cradle Swing. The seat had a lot of cushio and also a cushion to protect DC's little head and not allow the neck/head to slump. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3905822 Our swing was given to us - but when I was at the store I saw this Graco swing (see link below) and really liked it. Not only does the swing go back and forth, but it also swings in a circular motion like a parent does when they hold their child and move their arms back and forth. http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Sweetpeace-Newborn-Soothing-Center/dp/B000WIEH2C/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1260986039&sr=8-8 We waited on sleeping in the car seat until baby was a few months older as we were afraid of restricted breathing. Our Ped approved us using the car seat around 4 months. |