Transitioning 10 Mo. Old from Our Bed to His Crib

We were the exact same way! My daughter is now 14 months old and sleeping in her own crib since about a year or so. Here is what worked for us...

When she was about 10 months or so, we placed a port-a-crib at the end of our bed. I would start her off at night by putting her in there. She would sleep until about 1 or 2am at which point I did bring her in bed with us (sometimes I was on auto-pilot) I think is was an easier transition this way cause she was still close and could hear us breathing. On her 1st birthday we successfully transitioned her to her own crib in her own room without any trama for anyone. She would still wake in the middle of the night at first, I would bring her back to our bed. After about 2 weeks or so, she would just let out one cry, at first I'd star to get up, but realized after checking on her that she was still sleeping. Now she is completely sleeping right through the night in her own room. Now I just need to figure out how to eventually wean her AND "myself" (she's our last) from breastfeeding, LOL!

We found that it still is comforting to baby to be near you and gradually moving them makes transitioning easier, for us at least. This is what worked for us with 2 of our 3 kids. -with our oldest I had to work nights :( so my hubby was in charge of the nights. He was always in his crib

Try to sleep on one of the baby blankets/bedding that you use in the crib. This will give your baby your scent when he is sleeping. I also used a baby sleep positioner so my kids felt like they were sleeping 'next' to me.

I didn't have much of a problem with my kids from bed to crib.

But--- I can suggest Tracy Hogg's book "Baby Whisperer". I've been able to use many of her ideas on getting through many issues with my kids.

Good Luck!!

Hi T.,

I don't know if this will be helpful, because it's not the exact same situation. I have 11m twins & we transitioned them to going to bed at 8pm in the last month. So, at first they cried, and we let them cry for up to 10 minutes, and then went back in & laid them back down, and repeated this process until they would stop & go to sleep. The first few days I let them go to bed with a bottle. So, I had to do this again once I took the bottle away, but it was REALLY hard to just hear them cry. It did work over a period of 1 week. The first night was the worst, the 2nd night wasn't that bad, just had to go in once. The 3rd night wasn't as good, went in twice, and after that, they rarely cry-out. One thing I do is make sure they are tired. So, if they are wide awake at 8pm, I may let them stay up a little later, but they're always in their crib by 8:45. It was really hard for me, for the first 3 nights, because I don't just let my babies cry - but I knew this was the best for them. Hopefully some part of this is helpful or someone who has dealt with this exact scenario can answer! Good luck!

Check out the book Good Night Sleep Tight by Kim West. It is a gentle sleep training method that we used when DD was 9 months old.

Good Luck!

T.~

If you find an answer to this please forward it to me. I think you just exctly described my son. My son is 17 months however. Good luck!