Sleep Advice Confusion

My Son transitioned from my bed to crib around month 2 I started with the crib in my room and i would lay him down in the crib after he was asleep. he woke up every 2 hours to nurse and i would always try and lay him down in the crib afterwords it started with him only sleeping 2 hours in his crib the the rest of the night with me soon it was 4 hours then 6. around 3 months he started not sleeping well again so i moved him to his own room he continued to wake every 1-3 hours at night then slowly by 7 months he was sleeping in his room for 13 hours straight. I know it is tiring but it is such a short span of time in a long long life. i enjoyed the snuggles while i could get them. I found (though it is not dr reccomended) that giving my son a stuffed animal, a medium sized one, that he sleeps very well it helped him transtion from my bed to his and was a great help when getting him to stay in his own room. i stayed pretty relaxed on my rules he slept with me in my bed for the first 2 months straight then off and on until 3 months and a few times after that when he seemed like he needed the attention. Even now if he wakes up and seems really fussy i am not opposed to letting him come to bed with me. but he hasn't slept in my bed for 5 months now. Good luck!

Our son slept in our room for the first few weeks, but I wanted him to be transitioned to his crib before I went back to work as well. I started out with naps and gradually introduced nightime in his crib as well. We also used a swaddling blanket and a sleep positioner. I found that along with the swaddle the positioner gave him that sense of having 'something' on either side of him and I think it made him feel safe. Nightlight in the room and some background noise, (humdifier, radio, etc). He adapted fairly quickly after that.

Good luck!

I would also recommend swaddling if you haven't been doing that and the background sounds.

Otherwise, you can't force a baby to sleep. The reason there are so many theories is because there are so many different types of babies. Some babies are sleepers. Some are not. There are different cultures and beliefs about sleeping as well, and this impacts the theories.

My only advice is that you can create an environment that is conducive to sleeping and hope it works. You can control whether you decide to do a family bed or not and whether you want to let your baby cry it out at times. You have to do what you need to, not what everyone else is telling you to do. No one is going to have a magic answer that will lead your child to lay down in her crib whenever you want and go peacefully asleep. If someone really had that magic answer, they were be famous and very very rich.

That being said, 2.5 months is really young. She spent up to 40 weeks in a snug, dark environment. I don't think its suprising that she may have difficulty sleeping alone, in a large, open cold crib. Personally, we did a family bed for both of my kids until they were around 9-10 months old. Alot of it was for me because it was easier to feed them every few hours that way. But that worked for me, you need to do what works for you.

Good luck. Just keep reminding yourself that your other kids sleep, so will your baby.

We use the book Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West. You can google her and read about it. She has been on Dr. Phil and Oprah and shows like that. Her book is great because it is a gentle approach. But your little is still young and could still be in a bassinet by your bed. With my son at that age he was still in his cosleeper next to our bed and during the day I would put him down for naps in his crib so he got used to the room. And we use a white noise machine we got at babies r' us, we have a 2 year old too. The book goes all the way up to age 5 and is sectioned off by age so you know exactly how much sleep they need at each age and ways to help them learn to self soothe. But your little one is still pretty young so you have time to sleep train.

Night Time Parenting by Dr Sears saved our lives! Keep your baby close, especially since she is so little yet. A bassinet next to your bed is helpful and remember this will pass.
We have our children for such a short time. Do not let her cry it out, especially at this age. Treat this time as the "4th" Trimester, keep her close, meet her needs as soon as possible, as she is learning to trust you and has to depend on you.

The days (or nights in this case) are long but the years are short.
Stay close and enjoy this fleeting time in your lives.
J.

My daughter slept with us until she was 4 months old. It sort of happened by accident; she hated the bassinet even right next the bed and one day fell asleep on the contoured changing pad that I had on the bed after I changed her. I decided to let her keep sleeping and just lay down next to her and she had a terrific night's sleep. It was just the thing that I was looking for b/c I was worried about rolling over on her, but didn't want to go buy one of those sleeper things. I stopped using it as a changing pad and it became her bed within our bed. At 4 months I put the changing pad in her crib as a "transition item" and she slept great! She was attached enough to the changing pad that she didn't need to be in our bed anymore :) A few weeks later I took the changing pad out once she was used to being in the crib in her own room. Good luck!!

Hi T.,

My son was in a bassinet right next to me until he was around 5 months old. He had his "own" space, but he was just feet from me. He also responded well to being swaddled.

Then we moved his bassinet into his own room, and he slept like that for a few weeks. Then we put him in his crib, and he didn't even seem to notice.

So, for you I would recommend keeping him in your room to start, but putting him in a bassinet or "side car" co-sleeper. Then you could work up to his own room, then the crib.

Good luck!