Help With Transition To Crib

[mlw1378]

Please help us! My 5 month old has been very happy sleeping
in his carseat for too long now. We realize that it is long overdue
for the transition to the crib. I've been napping him during the
day in there off and on and he lasts for about an hour. We decided to tough it out tonight (after the doctor told me to) and
the poor guy screamed bloody murder. He has always had a very strong cry but it was one that I'd never heard before. I even waited until he fell asleep in his seat and moved him and had the same results. The other problem is that his brother - who sleeps in a crib in the same room. He keeps waking up when his brother screams and then I have 2 to get to sleep. I know this is not something that will happen overnight. If anyone has any tips that you can share I would appreciate it. He is a big guy and I'm not sure how swaddling him would work or if there is even a blanket big enough! The doctor told me to pull up a chair and ride it out with him but the doctor doesn't have twins!

[MOMOFADDI]

I have never had a problem with my babies sleeping in their crib but if I was in the same situation, I would put him in the crib and let him cry for about 10 minutes. If he is still crying after the 10 minutes, I would go back to the crib and pick him up and calm him down. Then put him back in the crib and start the process over and over again. My oldest daughter had a problem with naps and that is what I did with her. It took 2 days to get her down for her naps without crying. It is really hard to let them cry and believe me, I am not one to do the CIO method. My older daughter has never cried for more than 10 minutes at a time.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!

Allison, Mom to
Addison 5/6/01
g/g Riley and Reagan 12/23/03

[Twins babies 2004]

Unfortunately I don't have any good advice about transitioning them from seat to crib, as I didn't have to go through that.
But I do have some insight on a big enough blanket. My 3 1/2 month old is almost 16 pounds (yes he is a big boy) and we have the same problem with swaddling him. The regular receiving blankets won't work because they are way too small and the fleece blankets are too hot for him. The blankets we found that work are at Wal-mart called the Child of Mine blankets. I forgot the actual dimensions of the blankets but those work for him.

[jobaob1]

I also had to make the transition from carseat to crib a few weeks ago with one of my boys. It did take about 4 nights of him crying when I layed him down before he finally stayed asleep.
I would let him fall asleep in his swing and let him sleep in the swing for about an hour or so and then very carefully put him in his crib. He usually woke up about 10-15 minutes later. I would let him cry for about 15 minutes and then go in and put my hand on his belly and give him his pacifer. I did not pick him up cause I did not want to start the habit of him needing to be rocked to go back to bed. Once he closed his eyes I would leave. There were nights when I had to repeat this several times. Soon he would just fall asleep in his swing and then not wake up when I moved him. The last few nights I have been able to put him in the crib after his last bottle still kind of awake and he has been falling asleep. I do notice he does not sleep as long at night since we moved him out of his car seat. He use to sleep about 6-7 hours before he wanted his next bottle. Now he only sleeps about 4-5. I'm not sure if this is related or if he is just having a growth spurt. My next step is to try to cut out that nightime feeding.
I am lucky because my other boy (who sleeps in the same crib) is never bothered by his crying. If he did start to wake up because of all the crying my plan was to put the difficult one upstairs first and go through the crying thing while my dh stayed downstairs with my other little one.
Hope this helps and good luck.
Amy

[swymer]

Reading your post was like reading my mind. We are going through the same thing here. My girls have been in their car seats due to bad colds and now it is time to go back to the crib. One of my dds has turned into quite the mover and shaker in the time she was out of the crib, so they can't share cribs anymore. We just got the second crib yesterday and are getting the matress today. In the meantime, I have the less fussy sleeper in the crib. It took about three nights and four days to get her to the crib. For naps, I just instituted a routine of cuddling for a minute or two with the lights out and then turn on a CD of lullabyes - it is on very low volume. Now, she kept flipping over to her stomach to sleep, so now I just put her down on her tummy to save fussing time. I put her underneath an afghan that is tucked tightly into the sides of the mattress and the one end, so it kinda swaddles her in a way (She is a big girl at 18 lbs). Then I put her lovey near her face under her arm where she likes it and give her a paci. I sometimes have to rub her back to calm her down at first. The first morning nap is the hardest to get her down for and I end up letting her fuss for 10 minutes and then going in to give the paci again and rub her back. I may have to repeat this process a couple more times in the morning. At bedtime, we bathe, bottle, and then rock to sleep and put her to bed under the afghan with her lovey and ususally she keeps sleeping. Sometimes she wakes up while putting her down but she goes back to sleep on her own cause she is so tired. My other dd gets moved to the crib today. I won't lie to you - we had a couple really tough nights and REALLY tough days but eventually it all worked out. Good luck!!

[ATwinWithTwins]

When my boys turned 3 months old i dcecided it was time for them to get out of their swings and into their own cribs. We had to separate them b/c one has reflux and has his bed angled to help with that. But it took 3-4 nights of up every 3 hrs to get them to sleep in their cribs. Before the cribs we had one feeding a night and once we started the cribs they were up every 3 h rs to eat. But it was well worth it....they are 4 months now and it is wonderful. My advice is get them in there and just have patience...and take turned getting up with them.