Max will sleep in his cradle, he will sleep in my arms, he will sleep in his swing, he will sleep in his car seat, he will sleep in mommy and daddy's bed, but he will NOT sleep in his crib!! I am trying SO hard to transition him. I have tried white noise, I have tried swaddling him, I have tried different blankets, I have tried music, I have tried lights and no lights, I swear I have tried everything!!!! Max will be fast asleep and the moment I place him in his crib he is wide eyed and screaming. Sometimes (very rarely) Max will sleep in his crib 30 minutes but this is not long enough. He takes two 2 hour naps during the day and usually sleeps through the night. I have tried putting him in his crib when he is drowsy, when he is awake, and when he is asleep but it never seems to work. I spent so much time on his nursery, trying to make it cozy and cute for a sweet little boy. Clearly this means nothing to him!
Philip is home for the next two weeks (thank goodness) and with his help I hope we can win this battle. By golly Max better be sleeping in his crib by 2010.
I will take any advice and prayers!
I do not have the heart to let him cry it out...it is much too painful to hear him cry!
Hey!
ReplyDeleteGood, good luck with the sleeping battle. My opinion- the earlier you can get them in the crib, the easier! C slept in his swing until he was 8 months old! It worked for us, but it was no longer safe... and not practical.
Last Christmas Eve (so sad) I broke down, couldn't handle the waking up every 45 minutes or having him in the swing. We decided to put full sleep training in swing. Three days later, yes only three... I wondered why I didn't do this MONTHS ago!
We went the hard way and followed the Sleep Easy Solution. Basically it's a nicer way of letting them cry it out. It breaks my heart to even think of it... but because we did that, he is now such a happier baby. He sleeps a good 12 hours at night (unless he's sick or teething or something like that) and is just happier in general because he gets a better sleep in his crib.
There are a few really, really good books. One is called: "healthy sleep habits, happy child" by Mark Weissbluth (sp?). This is an awesome book. It's all about how important sleeping in cribs are for babies brains and developments and what not. They give you the info and then suggest you to try to get your babies sleeping in cribs. There are different chapters for different age groups, so you don't have to read the whole book... only a chapter or two as it pertains to you. I've only read about half cause it goes all the way up to preschool years. They too suggest crying it out, but it's a little harsher than what I wanted to do. With my next one though, this is starting (the way this book recommends) at three months! LOL.
Another book that is good, (that we used for actual sleep training) was The Sleep Easy Solution. It's good... but might take a night or two longer than the book above. It just makes you feel a little humane.
Sleep training was SO HARD for me, and I don't know why I made it so hard. If I just would have bitten the bullet and done it when I wanted to, we never would have had such hard sleep problems.
Our first night was HARD. He cried for over an hour... but went to sleep and was SO happy when he got up in the morning! The next two nights were easier, and the crying was shorter every night. By the fourth night he would lay in his crib awake after a bottle, talk to himself, sing, and then fall asleep. It was soooo sweet, and he was such a happy baby because of it.
NOW, I NEVER could have done this without my video baby monitor. I'm not sure if you have one, but I'd recommend it. You can see what they are doing when they are crying, and it makes you feel a little better to know that they are safe. We have the summer one and love it. I had every intention of returning it when we were done sleep training, but we kept it... and use it every day :)
Good luck! I hope that this helps a little... maybe you don't even want to go this route :) Just whatever you do, good luck! let me know if you have questions!!