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lovemaggie
04-03-2005, 05:48 PM
hi,
I am a new mom to a 6 weeks old baby who absolutely refused to sleep in crib. Even though he appears drowsy and tired, the second we put him down in his crib, he would scream and cry until we pick him up.
If he didn't sleep well, his feeding became difficult too. We are worried about his losing weight(since we had difficulty at the beginng to gain back his birth weight), We held him all day and all night after each feeding getting him sleep well. We are exhausted and I am due back to work soon. I am worried if we can still carry on like this day and night.
Anyone has similar experience? Any recommendation?
Thanks very much.

LizaSantaAna
04-04-2005, 05:00 PM
Are you swaddling him? At 6 weeks old, babies still want to feel that comfort of being in the womb. I swaddled my son until he was 2.5 months. Also, it's not too early to start a routine. For example, turning on the music and darkening the room as you start putting him to sleep.

Liza

lovemaggie
04-06-2005, 11:32 AM
hi liza,
Thanks for the reply. We stopped swaddling him around 4 weeks because he grew disliking it. He doesn't have trouble sleeping as long as we hold him. If we put him down in the his crib, he wouldn't sleep during the day and the night. I know this will pass some day.
But we can't leave him alone for a second. I am worried how he's going to cope with the daycare? And whether the daycare staff would have the energy and patience holding him all day along?

-maggie

jillylane
04-08-2005, 03:12 AM
Maggie, my daughter was the same way at that age.

We had her sleeping in a co-sleeper attached to our bed. And the first week or so was miserable. She would not sleep well at all. We tried swaddling, but she'd work her way out of it.

Then one day I put her in her infant seat during the day, and she fell asleep. We started letting her nap there, and then decided to see if she'd sleep at night in the infant seat. We put the infant seat in her co-sleeper, and it worked. The seat seemed to make her feel more secure.

I knew that I didn't want it to be a long-term solution, though. I'd been reading Marc Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. His recommendation is to do whatever it takes to get them to sleep in the early months. But to set a goal of establishing good sleep routines and habits around 4 months.

We transitioned our daughter into her crib at about 2 months old by putting the infant seat in the crib and letting her sleep there. After a few weeks, we took the infant seat out and put her directly into the crib. She was a little fussy about that for the first couple of days, but she got used to it.

She's now 4 months old and sleeping in her crib just fine.

I highly recommend the Weissbluth book, if you don't already have it. He explains a lot about sleep development in babies, and it's very helpful and informative.

Good luck!