Transfering from Mother's Bed to Crib

Hi D.,

I am confused. One of your postings said your little boy was 6 weeks (May) and one says he is 11 months (June).

If your little one is 11 weeks I would recommend nursing him to sleep (in a comfortable chair) and transferring him to the crib.

If your little one is 11 months establish a bedtime routine. Bath, book, nurse him in the chair and put him in his crib. Then sit down next to the crib looking down. Do not make contact with his eyes. He will still cry but he can see you. You stay in the room until he goes to sleep. Do the same thing the next night. After 3 nights sit a little farther from the crib. This is the "Super Nanny" way.

Where does your little one nap during the day? How does he get to sleep during the day? Our youngest daughter slept in our bed in the evening and napped in our bed. When we were ready to have our bed back we tried the crib and she would have nothing to do with it. She did not like the bars on the crib so we put her on a trundle. We did the super nanny way. It took several nights but was worth the end result. Just make sure both you and your husband agree on getting him in his own bed. You will need to support each other on the hard nights.

Good Luck. Hope you find the answer you are looking for. Just do what your heart tells you.

I haven't done this myself due to personal circumstances (relocating, etc.), but I read on the about doing a crib "side-car" - attaching the crib to the bed till they get used to it. I just googled and read different articles-here's one: http://www.littlewatkins.com/info-sidecar-crib.html
It might help both of you get used to the idea, free up some space in your bed, etc. Good luck!

Please don't try to night ween move him out of your bed and have him fall asleep with out nursing all at one time. That would be way to much for him.

I am on baby #3 and have co-slept to some extent with all of them.

I nurse or rock my current baby to sleep (depending on her mood) then lay her in her crib, when she wakes at night I bring her into bed and nurse her, then presuming I am still awake when she is back asleep I have my hubby move her back to her bed. She usually only wakes once at night.

How long are you planning on nursing?
With my oldest at 18mos I HADE To night ween, due to my 2nd pregnancy, and it hurt like heck when he nursed at night, so my husband would put him in his bed with a bottle of water and sit with him till he was asleep. If he would wake at night daddy took him his bottle of water and then he would go back to sleep, this only took 2 weeks or so until he slept thru the night.
I hope that all makes sense and is helpful.
GOOD LUCK I also have an almost 1 year old.

Try putting child in crib for different amounts of time. Start off with maybe 20mins. and trying building. He will cry but you will have to be strong and let him. Go in reassure him and then leave again. Let me warn you it will be tough but you have to do it for the childs sake and your sanity. As long as he is not hunger or sick he will be ok, it is worse for you than him.

Try reading Elizabeth Pantley's no cry sleep solution. I had a little success with it. I finally gave up and went with CIO because once my daughter turned one she got worse and I ended up rocking her to sleep for 3 to 6 hours... one night of CIO and she began happily going to sleep and getting 10-12 hours of sleep each night without problem- and naps are 1-3 hours too! She feels so much better (and so do I)! I do wish the no cry methods had worked for us though, good luck to you!

You and your HUSBAND need to have your bed to yourself, and your baby needs to learn to enjoy his own bed. I think he is using you as a pacifyer at night, so I suggest after your night feeding gently and soothingly put him in his bed, and if he cries , pat him and give him a pacifyer. He may cry the first night or two a little bit, but it won't last long.

My son slept in my bed until the age of 9 months. At that time we moved from a one bedroom apartment into a three bedroom house where he had his own room. It was the hardest thing (up until that point anyway- he is 16 yrs old now..LOL!)to do, but I put him in his crib & let him cry himself to sleep. He cried for a good hour & 1/2 the first night, about 30 min. the second night & about 10 min. the 3rd night. On the fourth night I layed him down & he went right to sleep without any crying at all. I will admitt that those first few nights were torture for me! It broke my heart to just sit there & listen to him cry! But... he survived & my husband & I regained our bed!!! One battle down... Countless more to go!

"Good Night, Sleep Tight" I got it at the library! Excellent, Excellent, Excellent. Basically, the first three nights (and in the middle of the night) you sit directly by the crib until they fall asleep. Next three nights, in the middle of the room, Next three at the doorway and last 3 in the hallway out of sight. The principle can be adapted easily. For example, for going to bed it worked great, but not so much for middle of night. So in middle of night I first started rocking for a while and then put in and then waited. Then moved to just waiting in the chair, etc. But it slowly weans them from you and teaches them to go to sleep by themselves, but in the safety of mom's presence (or dad's). There will probably be some crying, but without the terror of you not being there (just the mad crying of you not picking him up!). We still have some sleep issues, but this was a life saver as a strategy to get him to where we wanted him (out of our bed). I t can take a little longer, but it's a good system. Good luck!

Can you feed him and let him fall asleep then move him to his room? That is what I did at the beginning and moved on from there. You may have to let him cry for a little bit just because he is not used to the change and that is the way he can vocalize his disapproval. It will NOT hurt the baby to cry it out but do what you are comfortable with. Just remember: crying doesn't hurt, it's just how they communicate and it bothers the parent more than the baby.