Transitioning from pnp to crib

[alliekat75]

Hi ladies,
Please help!!!!! We've moved DD from the pack n play that was in our room up to her room and new crib. So far, she's been in the crib asleep for about an hour total today. We'll go up, replace the paci, soothe her, rock, etc. Within 5 minutes of laying her day, those eyes pop open. She's very tired since she hasn't napped well today.

What eased your child's transition to the crib? I'm afraid it will be a long night. BTW, before today, she's been an excellent sleeper (2-3 hour naps and 8 hours at night). She's 11 weeks old.

Thank you!

Allison

[merjmo]

I might do it slowly, like doing naps in the crib first, then moving to night sleep in the crib (or vice versa). But I'm also one to really want my sleep! The times that we've made moves from sleeping places to a new one (at night) we'd do a certain number of hours and then if she was constantly fussy we'd move her back to the original place. And then we'd try to extend those hours each night.

But all babies are different and maybe yours will just take to the crib at night?

[mommydearest]

We did it for DD around this age. Like the previous poster said, we started with naps first, and then moved to nights after a week or so.

DD also stopped sleeping through the night about that age. From about 8 weeks to about 12 weeks, she slept from 10 pm to 7 or 8 am no problem. But at 4 moths until about 13 months, she woke up twice most nights, and then she moved to just once a night, until at about 14 months, she started STTN about 80% of the time. It totally sucked when she went back to waking up at night because that was also right when I went back to work and was EXHAUSTED since we were BF and DH couldn't do any of the night feedings.

[TracyDP]

We transitioned our DD at 5m old from the Arms Reach co-sleeper in our room into her crib in her nursery. She was sleeping about 10pm -6am straight at that time. We had not even assembled the crib until then and once we had it up and furnished we wanted our bedroom back.

This was my strategy (kind of slow, but I wanted a painless transition):

I started with putting her in the crib while I did little things in the room, like put away her laundry, stock the changing table or get her bath ready. Always with me in the room or talking to her from the bathroom and with her music mobile going. I gave her a lovey bear too just for something snuggly to hold since we stopped swaddling about 2 weeks earlier. I did this for about a week so she could get used to the feel of the crib.

Next I started putting her down for naps in the crib, and that went pretty smoothly since she was used to the feel of it. Before I did that, I had her sleep with the crib sheet wrapped around her co-sleeper mattress so it got her smell on it. I believe this helped with the transition since babies are so tuned in to familiar smells (I had just bought crib sheets, and up to then she has been laying on a blanket in the crib...but I didn't want her sleeping on the blanket). I did naps for 2 weeks.

At the beginning of the third week I put her down for the night in her crib...and she STTN 10pm-7am (hour longer than she usually did). I think this was because DH gets up at 6am to get ready for work so we always just got up with him for morning bottle, then went back to bed until 8am. I was all worried she wouldn't sleep well but it was a big non-event. We haven't looked back. She STTN about 90% of the time, though 3-4 times a week she is a little hard to get to sleep initially. Once she's out for good she doesn't wake up.

[Angie]

We actually transitioned over 3 weekends. The first weekend we put the crib in our room, next to our bed with the bumpers off so that if DD woke up in the middle of the night, she pretty much felt like she was still in bed with us. We kept this for a week. The next weekend we put the bumpers back on, but still kept her in our room. Then a week later when she was used to her crib and bumpers, we moved it to her room. None of the steps were really bad at all. We did need to do it slowly since when we first tried to put her in her crib in her room, she would wake up within minutes crying.

Good luck! :)

[alliekat75]

Hi everyone,
Thank you for the great suggestions. Our computer crashed right after I posted my question, so I'm just now seeing your advice. Things are going pretty well.

The first night in her crib, she slept for 8 hours and has done so each night since. Her naps are still a little inconsistent. She'll nap for 45 minutes to an hour at a time, versus the 2 hour naps in the pack n play. We're getting there.

Since we use the Angel Care monitor, I'm pretty insistent that she sleep (even nap) with it. It's a pain to move back and forth, so the crib is the only sleep place in our house now.

Thank you again for your suggestions. A more gradual transition makes more sense than what we've done. I'm very thankful that things are better since that first day.