This week's topic is.....
THE CRIB
For the first four weeks of Pearson's life he slept in the Pack N Play in our bedroom. My pediatrician said I could let him go up to 5 hours in between feeding at night if he would sleep that long. He would never actually go 5 hours though. Pearson was only sleeping 3 1/2-4 hours because the second he started grunting I would get him out of his Pack N Play. I would always get him out as soon as I hear him because I didn't want to wake up Matt. He was never totally awake, but by the time I changed his diaper he would have woken up and was ready to eat.
Last week we moved him out into the living room and he is now sleeping 5 hours in between feedings. Yay!! We like to sleep with the door closed because it keeps our room colder, but since we've moved him out we have had to keep the door open. Problem is....I can't really hear him as well in the living room even with our door open. Matt has to wake me up sometimes because he hears him crying before I do, which defeats the purpose of not waking up Matt. I know it's not really a big deal if Matt wakes up, but I hate for him to have a bad nights rest since he has to go to work the next day. I can rest all day if we have a terrible day.....he can't.
I'm ready to move him to the crib, but I will obviously not be able to hear him cry if I can't even hear him in the living room. I have a baby monitor, but won't that just be like he's in the room since I'll be able to hear every move and grunt. As soon as I hear him grunting, I'll want to get up and get him even though he's not totally awake because I don't want to wake up Matt. And if I continue to let him grunt and make noises before he's actually awake, I won't be able to go back to sleep. So I might as well get up and feed him, but I want him to sleep as long as he can between feedings.
So my question is....
When did you transition to the crib?
How did you transition to the crib?
Do you use a baby monitor?
What kind of baby monitor do you have? Do you like it?
Do you wait until they are screaming or do you get up with the first grunt?
Any other tips to transition to the crib are appreciated!!
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14 comments:
Madelyn was in the pack-n-play in our room until she was a little over 3 months old. One night I just started putting her in her crib and she actually did good. She was going about 6 hours the first bit of sleep and then 3-4 the rest of the night. We have a video monitor that we used, and once we went to the bottle, we took turns getting up to feed her. And yes, we were getting up at every grunt and just feeding her. Now that she is 4 months old, we just leave our bedroom door open and hers too and we wait until we hear her actually crying before we get up and get her. Sometimes we will hear her fuss and then she will go back to sleep. It just depends on if both of us wake up or not, just how hard we are sleeping, but at least we don't hear every grunt, just the loud fussing/crying. I do love the video monitor though, it is by Summer Infant. I don't really have any other tips, but wish you luck!
Oh and we are only having to feed her once a night now. I know some babies her age though that sleep through the night, but she still seems to need one feeding, as she gulps it down!
Maybe you could put the moniter in the bathroom, so you won't hear every little peep. If he cries out you will hear him.
She transitioned around 3 months I think. We actually had to transition her from people to a bouncer to the pack n' play and then to the crib. A bit of a process, but as you know you sometimes have to do what works for your individual baby. Anyway, we started introducing it at nap times and then picked a weekend to put her in the crib. We always do major feeding or sleeping changes on a weekend so we can both help and both take naps when needed. So pick a weekend that you're not too busy. We use a simple Sony monitor (no fancy video or anything). There's a sound activated setting which is nice. You'll be surprised how much sounder he'll end up sleeping in the crib once you move him. He'll stop making so much extra noise after a while. Previously, if I heard her and it was around a feed time, I just went (I didn't get away from 3 hour night feeds for a while since she was so little). Otherwise, if she's not screaming, I'm not moving. Frankly at this point, if she wakes up at all, it's sudden and with crying. Anyway, you'll make it work and find your rhythm. At just over 6 months, she doesn't get any night feeds, so that should be encouraging. She sometimes still wakes up and needs to be patted and pacified quickly to go back to sleep, but that's it.
our kids started out in their cribs... mainly because we lived in a shoebox when we had b. so that was our only option. so with charlotte we just did the same thing. use a monitor. put it really low - maybe on your side of the bed? and you'll only hear them when they're really crying... in my opinion they don't really "need" anything until they're REALLY crying. at night, anyway. this stage will pass... quickly. promise. it doesn't feel like it, but it will.
I transitioned my daughter to her crib at 6 weeks. We use a monitor but I've tweaked the volume to where if she was making little grunts I couldn't hear it but if she started crying I could. It is really soft but as a mommy, I'm really in tune to her sounds, even in the other room, that I've never not heard her when she was crying.
We transitioned at 3 months... baby #2 will go to his/her room a lot faster. It was just easier to cross the room instead of the house in the middle of the night. We just stuck him in there one night & that was that! We use the Sony Baby Call Monitor. It works great. You can set it on voice recognition, so it only turns on when baby is making noise, but doesn't catch small noises. Also, you can adjust the volume & the distance of the receiver so you only hear cries, not little noises. I now only go in when Elliot is crying & clearly awake, but when he was an infant, I got up when he made noise b/c it did mean he was awake - I never woke him to feed him. Sometimes he does make noise but I don't go in, so I turn the monitor off & come out into the living room so Josh doesn't wake up. I do plan on getting a video monitor next time tho - there are SO MANY times when I wish I knew what he was doing! & there have been times that I have walked in to check on him & he popped up & started crying when he saw me. Agh!
We moved Dylan out of our room at about 8 weeks. He was a very restless sleeper so he would wake me up when he wasn't really awake. What we did, we have a 2 story and his room is upstairs, is we plugged the monitor in, but left his door and ours open. I could hear him cry, if he was actually CRYING. But on the lowest setting I couldn't hear anything. We also have a video monitor, honestly, the BEST purchase. He is a great sleeper, but he is also a great player. Sometimes he will be awake for an hour just laying there before he would makes a sound in the morning. He wasn't ever really a cryer, so I relied on that camera a lot to know when he was up. We have the Summer Infant Slim and Secure. It can have up to 4 camera, so we will just buy another one for Graham's room, and then use the same handheld parent base. I also would let Dylan cry for a few min before going to check on him, I think this is why he is a great sleeper even now. He can put himself back to sleep no problem! Good Luck! He sure is a cutie!:)
obviously you've been a mom longer than me...but here's my 2 cents! ;) We have a baby monitor and it has a voice activated setting, so it doesn't pick up all those little grunts (unless it's a REALLY big one). We've been using this since day 1 and seems to work pretty well. I only hear Adelyn when she's actually crying and I hear it soon enough that it doesn't wake Kyle. Good luck with the transition, hope it goes well!
Hi I know this is random & I dont even remember how I found your blog & you dont know me:) but our daughter is almost 12 weeks & hopefully I can help you with what worked for us. we put her in her room at 6 weeks. We didnt put her in the crib at 6 weeks but she had the Fisher Price Rocker thing that she loved...so we just positioned the monitor down on her and closed her door & since she started sleeping in her room, she has slept so much better, meaning we then sleep better. I left the volume on at first, with our door open but was waking up to little grunts & now, we just leave our door open & you will know when he is not gonna go back to sleep. Your mommy instinct will wake you up if he's crying & you don't hear him loud & clear, he'll let you know. At about 8 weeks we moved to the crib, naps first for 3 days & then on day 4, naps & nightime in the crib. It was a smooth transition & before we started the naps in the crib, I would also take her in her room througout the day & just put her in there for a few minutes & stand over the crib & talk to her so she could get used to being in it. That seemed to help too. so now, I leave our door open, her door is closed with a night light on, and when she needs me, I hear her:) And I just turn the volume all the way down & leave the video part on so if I wake up & she's still asleep , I can peek at her & just make sure she's ok:) Hope this helps. Another tip my sister gave me(she has 2 little girls), was to not change the middle of the night diaper unless its poopy. WHen I was , it would wake my daughter up & then take forever to get back to bed. So the last diaper of the day, after her bath, I lube her up with the Aquaphor baby, its like vasoline & I dont change her in the middle of the night. I put her in a size 2 at night to hold a little more, (daytime is the size 1-2) & it made the middle of the night smoother. I would leave her swaddled, feed, burb, no lights, no talking to her , no diaper change & back to bed & those middle of the nights slowly got shorter & shorter. THe first time we put her in her crib, she hated it, I'll be honest... but I think doing it 3 days in a row really helped ease her into it instead of cold turkey. Matt will probably hear him from time to time but if he's like my husband, he'll be able to fall right back asleep:)
I had planned to keep Bryson in our room for a while, but when he was around 7 weeks, i was waiting for him to wake up so I could nurse him one last time before bedtime, and he never woke up, so I just layed him in his crib. He slept amazing that night and was in the crib ever since. He adjusted perfectly fine to naps and night time "cold turkey"
I always keep the monitor on the very lowest setting at night time so I can definitely hear him if he needs me, but he has always grunted and made short whining noises in his sleep and I just had to let him do it so he stayed asleep and got the good night's rest he needed. It was REALLY hard at first not to run in there.
As far as Michael, he sleeps like a rock, and rarely EVER woke up when B cried. I never had him get up because it was just much easier for me to do it since I was nursing. So he never hears him on the monitor.
Maybe you could put the receiver in the farthest corner from his crib and keep your end on the lowest setting if you're worried about hearing every single thing.
Good luck!! :)
I didn't read the other comments so I apologize if I am just repeating something someone else said. We moved Micah to his crib at 2 weeks and Laurel at 1 week. I just never slept as well when they were in the room with me because I woke up with every sound (like you did). Because we did it so early, we didn't really have to transition... just put them in the crib one night! We did use a monitor with both but I turned the volume to where I only heard it if they were really crying. With Laurel, we finally started turning it off because she was such a noisy sleeper. I only heard her if she was really crying which worked out well because then I only woke up when she really needed me. I would recommend not getting up with the first grunt/sound. Babies are noisy sleepers and go in and out of sleep cycles so when they are not in a deep sleep cycle, they'll make noise and move around and such. If you wait until he lets you know that he is hungry and needs you, you'll be getting up less and you are teaching him to sleep for longer stretches.
So, I say the quicker you put them in their crib, the better. You'll sleep better and so will he. Pearson is precious!!
Our son Caden was with us until a little before 3 months when we realized we were probably waking each other up. I also was only having to get up to nurse him once (occasionally twice) at this point. With him being upstairs that was a big need so that I wouldnt be going up and down all night.
- Yes, we used a monitor. A video monitor which was great for my sake. We also used a regular Sony monitor for the sound because our video had interference across the house upstairs.
- We still tried to go up as soon as we heard him. (got to peek through the monitor to make sure he was stirring & not just dreaming). Our reasoning for this was so that he wouldn't learn that he had to get really angry in order to be fed so to speak. We didn't want him to learn to go straight to screaming in order to get what he needed and it really worked for us. (I also got him up immediately when he was in our room so not to wake my husband, so I relate)
- The transition was a bigger deal for us than him. He could have cared less and there was no negative change in his sleep habits.
Once he was there I slowly got used to the little noises he made through the monitor more and didn't wake as easily myself to those but when he was truly stirring and hungry.
Good Luck!
(Remember, it is always about whatever works for you and your family as to what time frame you do it in, so don't worry if it is earlier/later than other people!)
London stayed in her pack-n-play until she was 1mth old. She was a very nosiy sleeper, and I found myself jumping to check on her every little noise. So I started putting her in her crib during nap times to help her get adjusted to the more open space. Also during this time I played around with the volume on the moniter as well. I honestly think its a "new" mom thing to jump up at every grunt or squirm but it took me around a week and I didn't even notice the little noises anymore. Sometimes if I woke up and it was time for a feeding I would just go in check on London and crawl back into bed. I personally felt that by London going in her crib that early helped her sleep all night. She started around 3mths sleeping around 6-7 hrs. Now she is 10mths and sleeps 9-10hrs. I think your doing an awesome job as a mom and things will just fall into place. As a single mom I didn't have alot of help but I do know that whatever will work for you and your family thats what should stick!!
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