Because of him, ever since she came home from the hospital, Lissie has been sleeping soundly because she's swaddled, with a pacifier, in her lamb swing while white noise plays in the background. In fact, now she averages 5-6 hours of sleep a night before feeding and going back to sleep for another few. This week, she has also given us 2 consecutive days of 8-9 continuous hours. Yay, Lissie...right?
Well, I've noticed that she's been looking a little cramped in her swing lately. She is still very much within the weight limit, but she seems really long - her head is almost touching the top, and it just doesn't look very comfortable.
So, given the fact that she's close to outgrowing her swing, has pretty solid sleep habits already, plus Justin's got a long weekend (so he can help with the process), I decided that Lissie was going to begin the transition to sleep in her crib.
Thus we have [imagine this spoken in a loud, manly emcee voice]: Round One of...
Lissie & Swing
vs. Mommy & Crib
The round started off in Mommy's favor. We did the typical bedtime routine of feeding, bath, diaper change, and swaddle. The only difference was that Lissie was placed in the crib. She was fast asleep by 9:15, so Mommy thought she won the battle for sure...until twenty minutes later when Lissie woke up fussy.
It was easy enough to calm her down and place her back in the crib. But another few minutes later, Lissie woke herself up unhappy. This happened a few more times, but eventually, around 11pm, she seemed to be down for good.
Until 11:45. And boy was she mad. Nothing at all calmed her down - no rocking, shushing, singing could get that girl to stop crying.
So Mommy caved. And Lissie won. At 12:04am, she was placed in her swing...and slept until 3:30am - which isn't so unusual for a night feeding.
Ah, but Mommy didn't want Lissie to win the all-out battle. Now that she was (slightly) rested, she was ready for part two. So, after the feeding, instead of putting Lissie in her swing, Mommy tried the crib again.
But this time, Lissie thought it was playtime and was having the time of her life wiggling around and giggling, much to Mommy's dismay.
(Yeah, we think she looks evil in this video, too.)
Once Lissie realized that Mommy wasn't messing around, the battle waged on as before: a few minutes of sleep, followed by having to be consoled by Mommy. This went on FOR TWO HOURS. Mommy was NOT going to cave this time! Eventually, though, just before 7am, Lissie was so inconsolable that Mommy took it as a cue to go ahead and get started with the morning.
Today's going to be rough.
Oh, Lissie. I love you, but you really need to trust Mommy on this. Do you really want to be 25 years old and still sleeping in a swing?
And, Dr. Karp, what the heck, man? What am I supposed to do now?
Sorry to hear that you had a rough night.
ReplyDeleteWe have a friend, whose baby loved his Lamb swing too. And they were having the same trouble when he outgrew his wing, 3 months later... :(
By the way, I couldn't view the video, stating it was a private video.
ReplyDeletethanks, yana - i fixed it!
ReplyDeleteTake a deep breath, Mama. :) There will be sleep issues off and on for a while, even after she has moved to her crib. She still has plenty of room in that swing, though--trust me, we have the same one, and Ayla was in that thing until probably 10 months or so. *L* And she was the same birth size as Lissie, now on the big side for her age. When she started trying to get out of it herself is when I knew I had to put it away.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, we usually only used it for naps and occasional other times she needed calming or 'containment' for a few minutes (like a mommy bathroom break *L*). She didn't sleep overnight in it. So while Lissie could still sit in it for many months to come, getting her used to her crib like you're trying to do is probably in all of your best interests. ;)
As for Dr. Karp's 5 S's (which yes, were WONDERFUL lifesavers), keep in mind that they are mostly only helpful those first 3-4 months while an infant 'finishes' that early development. I'm not sure when it stopped working for us...but we did not use the Little Lamb swing for the swinging portion. We held her on her side, paci in mouth, and swung her in our arms gently.
When she is in the swing at night, is it near her crib, or in another room? Does she have the sound on or the mobile going? What I would suggest is moving the swing right next to her crib if it isn't already, so that she gets more used to the location. Then you can either try getting her to sleep in the swing first without music, then without the mobile, and lastly without the swing even being on; OR, put her in the crib with the swing nearby and music and mobile going on the swing. I think the first would probably be easier, to wean her off of needing it...it's very hypnotic, so she may be able to self-soothe just from the familiarity of it and you can eventually get her into the crib.
As I said, we only used it for naptime-sleep, but the transition to crib was still a pretty tough one. Hang in there. She probably won't be in it at all past her birthday. ;)
Hey, Susan~
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insight. The swing is right next to her crib. We don't turn the mobile or music on at night - she has a white noise machine that we play. I suppose we could start placing her in it without turning the motor on...and put her in her crib at a future date.
I guess I'm just planning ahead since we'll be doing some traveling in the coming months, and I would like her used to sleeping on her back so being in a foreign place where there is no swing would be slightly more tolerable.
She probably just is too young to self-soothe, so I shouldn't rush into things. I just didn't think she'd be THAT upset about it!
Oh, and the pic of her in the swing is an old one. She's much longer now...and add that the swaddle makes positioning her in it weird anyway, she just looks like it can't be comfortable.
I appreciate the tips :-)
Hey, Noreen! We did the 5 S's and it worked great for a long time. We actually had Tristan swaddled til he was about 6 mos with both arms in and one arm out until he was 9 mos. We moved to a sleep sack are that. We had a rough go with the sleep training from the co-sleeper to the crib, but we soldiered on and we had him sleeping in his crib after a few days and nights of crying. We did the cry-it-out thing on a modified, timed version. We would let him cry for 5 mins and check in on him, the next round would be for a 10 min wait, the next 15 mins, and so on and so forth. Earplugs helped and a will of steel because there is nothing worse than hearing a little one cry as loud as they do when they want to get your attention. He started sleeping for periods of 6-8 hrs starting when he was about 6 mos. He eventually moved on to 12-hr spells after I stopped nursing at 13 mos. Hang in there, it gets better. You're already getting a lot of advice from what I can see, but know that your instincts as Lissie's mom is wht will get the three of you through. God bless your little family and good luck! She is a beautiful little girl.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, Ayla wasn't comfortable in it if she was swaddled. *L* I guess that's why we did the side-rocking instead.
ReplyDeleteHow comfortable is she in her car seat? If you can't get her into a crib by the trip, you could just let her sleep in that. :)