tips for getting baby to sleep

Connor seems to like to be rocked to sleep, likes to sleep on my belly, in
my bed or his car seat but can't get him to settle in his moses basket.

I've tried swaddling, rolling a blanket up a blanket and placing them either
side of him to make him feel secure, rocking him in the basket but no joy.

Any tips?

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LG

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How old is he again? Taylor was like that for the first few months.
Finally I decided that I was going to have to fight that battle until I won.
I swaddled and wrapped a few blankets gently around her on top of that, and
held her until she just barely fell asleep. Then I'd gently lay her down.
The moment I did, she'd wake up. She was like the opposite of those baby
dolls whose eyes close when you lay them down. I'd put my hand on her and
very very gently rock her. I left her down until she fussed, which the
first few days was literally a few minutes. But if you have nothing else to
do, no other children or responsibilities, you just concentrate on this,
eventually he'll get tired, because he won't be napping at all, and
eventually he won't fuss as you put him down. I'm thinking it took a week,
all day long for about 7 days. But eventually she wouldn't fuss when I laid
her down, and eventually after that, she wouldn't wake up any more.

After I got her weaned from the falling asleep on my chest or in my arms, I
was careful to always lay her down awake if I could and let her fall asleep
on her own. But really, that came after another few months -- in the
beginning, you are just so thrilled to get an hour or two with the baby
sleeping SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN IN YOUR ARMS! that you don't even worry about
the next part!
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Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

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"Karen (LG)" wrote in message
...
Connor seems to like to be rocked to sleep, likes to sleep on my belly, in
my bed or his car seat but can't get him to settle in his moses basket.

I've tried swaddling, rolling a blanket up a blanket and placing them
either side of him to make him feel secure, rocking him in the basket but
no joy.

Any tips?

--
LG

--
Please sponsor my childminding toddlers for barnados big toddle 2007
http://www.justgiving.com/cliftonchildminder
--
Need a childminder in or around NG11 Nottingham?
http://www.freewebs.com/cliftonchildminder/index.htm
--

My DD was easy, she would not sleep in her crib, but she would sleep in her
cradle swing or in her playpen or on a floormat before she was able to roll
over or crawl (our house has no pets and at the time, no other kids, so this
was safe when she was a newborn, plus I never left her alone).

Basically all I had to do was put her down where I wanted her to sleep and
put on classical music or lullabyes- I used Baby Einstein DVDs, nothing
fancy. It seemed to be the repetition and soft music. She liked the tv on
rather than silence so it was simple enough to me to have the Baby Mozart
on.

Other than the swing and relaxing sounds, all my advice is probably pretty
pat...swaddling, rocking, etc. If you want to read a book or watch a DVD my
friends had good luck with Happiest Baby On The Block, they followed advice
in there- I never read it. I was pretty lucky with DD so I expect #2 not to
be so easy.

Karen (LG) wrote:
Connor seems to like to be rocked to sleep, likes to sleep on my belly, in
my bed or his car seat but can't get him to settle in his moses basket.

I've tried swaddling, rolling a blanket up a blanket and placing them either
side of him to make him feel secure, rocking him in the basket but no joy.

Having had one baby, I've got to say that my personal take on this would
be to save yourself a lot of hassle and just go ahead with letting him
sleep where he's happy sleeping. The problem with all this advice you
get in the baby books about getting your baby into Good Sleep Habits
from the start, blah blah blah, is that it always assumes that that's
going to be somehow easier than leaving it until later. It wasn't until
I had a baby that I realised that this wasn't necessarily the case.
Actually, I was so used to trusting baby books that it wasn't until a
couple of months down the line that I gradually, through a fog of sleep
deprivation, realised that this wasn't necessarily the case. What
finally sank in was that, for me and my baby, it wasn't going to be the
choice between easily getting him adapted to the crib from the start or
a struggle later on that the books make you think it's going to be. It
was going to be a choice between a struggle now and a struggle later on,
and I realised I'd rather have a struggle with an older baby than with a
young one who was still getting used to the world.

But that's me. And I was actually OK with letting him sleep in my bed
at the time - it was more of a "I can't do things this way now because
I'll be stuck with it forever and regret it in six months/a year/five
years" fear. You might feel differently and really feel you're not
getting on at all with having him sleep in your bed - some mothers can't
sleep that way, and maybe there are reasons I don't know about why you
wouldn't be able to follow safe co-sleeping guidelines (always
important). So, if this is something you want to change right now, then
what I'd recommend would be to place a folded blanket between the sheet
and the mattress (anti-SIDS fears mean the mattresses are so firm that
they become downright uncomfortable sometimes), put something of yours
in the basket so he's got your scent, maybe put a heartbeat recording
down next to him so it's as much like being held as possible, get him to
the point where he's drowsy & relaxed and seems ready to fall asleep,
swaddle him, put him down, and just stand there patting him gently and
making soothing shhhh-ing noises. He won't stay awake forever - it just
feels that way - and that way he's comfortable and knows you're still
there, so even if it stresses him out somewhat it'll be within the
limits of what he can deal with. The more often you do this, the more
he'll get used to falling asleep there. However, it is more work and
hassle and I wouldn't bother unless there is some specific reason why
co-sleeping isn't an option right now.


All the best,

Sarah
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