Baby does not want to sleep in her cot

[Jonathanmommy]

Our baby is now 8 months and he has been sleeping in his own room since the first day he came home from the hospital. We have a baby monitor next to his bed and we will hear him if he wakes up in the middle of the night. It was tough in the beginning because I had to go to his room to breast feed in the middle of the night. But now he is sleeping from 8pm through the night till about 630am. He is very happy with sleeping in his own room all by himself and even if he wakes up earlier than we do, he will play in his bed with his toys or does his baby talk. Then he will start to yell for us when he is ready to have his meal. When we bring him to our bed, he prefers to crawl around and play. He does not have the concept of sleeping in our bed at all.

I think once you get the baby used to sleeping with mom and dad in the same bed, it may take a while to train him to sleep on his own. I have seen my cousin. Her 2 daugthers were 5 and 3 years old and still sleep in the same bed with her and her husband. My friend's 7 year old boy and 5 year old girl still want to sleep in mom and dad's bed now. It is a pain because they have to wait till the kids fall asleep and then move them back to their own rooms.

As for the maid sleeping in the nursery. I cannot stand the thought of my baby falling asleep and waking up with the nanny closer to him. I guess I will get too jealous. So, baby in his own room. Nanny in her own room. Mom and dad in our own room....

 

[cinnamon]

HI Blee
I agree that at least from about 6 months on baby should have her own room.
Unfortunately that is a luxury we dont have since we only have a one room apartment!
I was too paranoid about SIDS in the beginning anyway, and I prefered only having to roll out of bed and feed baby without too much effort!
My baby was always happy to sleep on her own and fell asleep happily without us in the room from a very early age.
She never slept in the same bed as us, especially because my husband had nightmares about rolling on to her!
She also slept through from 7pm to 5am most of the time. And like your baby was happy to play and talk to herself in her cot until she was hungry
It was just so sudden that she started to wake up and cry. We tried patting and rocking, sometimes I try to feed, but most time she is not hungry.
It seemed to co-incide with her starting to crawl. i wonder if this is connected.
Anyone else notice this timing?

 

[Har-loi]

Hi Cinnamon,

I do think it has got something to do with baby's new learning skills as well.

My girl when she'd started crawling, she used to roll over and then starts to cry each time she wakes up in the middle of the night. I had to carry her out from the cot and cuddle her to sleep before putting her back to her cot. It was during this stage that she wakes up alot..maybe too anxious to learn her new skill.

Now she's beginning to stand and walk and I am facing a diff. porblem. She'll wake up ~2am and begin to practice her standing and sitting skills in her cot.. it's really quite funny to watch her at times ..but, I have to carry her and convince her to go back to sleep..

 

[kelliefiler]

My guestion is this - is one month to young to start controlled crying? I know she is still very young but I want to break her bad habbits of having to be rocked or falling asleep on the boob now to cause any problems further down the road. Also I am starting to dread sleep times due to her being unsettled when she goes into her own bed.

 

[nursie]

Hi Kylie

Controlled crying with a one month old is way too early. According to my ped you could gently start doing this from 6 months on. I understand you're scared your baby will develop a bad habit. Try not to worry about it too much.

I remember the first three months were the hardest for all of us anyway. You'll see, when your baby hits three months you'll notice a big difference in his/her behaviour and you can interact with the baby much more and you'll be soooo relieved that life doesn't just consists of Sleep-Eat-Cry-Poo ;-)

 

[kelliefiler]

Thanks for your advise,
perhaps i shouldnt have said control crying as it is more just trying to get her to sleep in her bed when she is showing the tired signs but is still awake, as now she is waking as soon as we put her down and is very hard to resettle. I am letting her cry but will pat her after a few minutes then if it continues past 10 minutes will pick her up for a cuddle then straight back down. I guess it is a gentler method of control crying. Is it still to early for this? as sometimes it can take me up to three hours to settle her and then she is so overtired by that stage.

 

[jasminea]

if you allow her to cry in her cot and she s already 10 months,doesnt the baby try climbing out?thats the problem we are facing.