how/when to transition a car seat sleeper??

[Giantbear]

My DD is 13 weeks old and gives us 7-8 hours of sleep a night if she sleeps in her car seat. We belt her in so there is no fear of her falling out, but we are unsure of when and how to transition her to her crib. She will occasionally take short day time naps in the crib and she is one of those kids who fights the swaddle with a vengance, last time we tried it, she fought it for 20 minutes before we freed her and put her back in her car seat.

Any ideas??

[crl]

I'm sorry I don't have any good suggestions for getting better sleep outside the carseat. But I would discontinue that length of use right away. That position causes breathing problems for babies. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/24/car.seat.blood.oxygen/index.html

For the sake of safety in the car the trade off is worthwhile, but as a sleeping solution, it just isn't, IMO.

Catherine

[BabyBearsMom]

We had a similar situation. At first, DD would only sleep in the swing. The way we transitioned her is that I started with the naps. At the time, DD was napping 4 times a day. So day 1, I put her in the crib for her morning nap (her best/easiest nap); day 2 I did her first naps, etc. etc. until all of her naps were in her crib. After about a week of only napping in the crib, we moved her to the crib at night. We did it on a weekend night, so neither of us had to work the next day. I will say that she fought us tooth and nail going down for the night for weeks. It would take us 2 hours to get her to bed at night and was a miserable time. What ended up working for us was to give her a bottle (She is breast fed, but I would pump for this) while she was laying in her crib and then she would fall asleep (the transfer from breast to bed would wake her up and we would be back to square one). We also found that a pacifier really helped.

Another thing that a lot of people do is put some sort of wedge under the crib mattress so that baby isn't sleep flat on his or her back. Then gradually reduce the wedge until it's flat.

No matter what, it is going to be a tough transition, but it is totally doable. But you should start as soon as possible because your little one is approaching 4 months, which is when habits start to set in.

[sunnyside]

I don't have much advice as my little girl is just 6 weeks, but I would also suggest not having her sleep in her car seat for such a long time.

I am curious about the swaddle though. Did you try swaddling her while she's asleep? My baby doesn't like being swaddled when she is awake. I breastfeed her to sleep (or sometimes she falls asleep by herself with us on the couch). Once she is peacefully sleeping, I swaddle her up and put her to bed (she sleeps in bed with us or in her cosleeper next to our bed). If I try to swaddle her while she's awake she gets really upset with us.

Have you tried putting her in her crib once she's asleep?