You may remember my previous attempts to teach DS to sleep without a wrap. The threads are here and here. Well, here I am again!
DS has started commando crawling & we are now having huge trouble getting him to sleep at night. I still wrap him, but he rolls over, gets his arms out & starts crawling around the cot. If I am standing out of sight, he cries while he crawls around. If I walk over to his cot, he laughs & keeps crawling. But, he won't go to sleep . It's doing my head in!
The last 2 nights, DH has put his hand on DS's chest & patted him with the other hand (so he can't roll over)& he has gone to sleep in 10 mins or so. But I don't want to keep doing this - I want him to learn how to sleep by himself - and to be able to roll over in his sleep.
I know in the previous thread people said that it took their babies a few days to adjust to no wrap etc. But DS just seems to cry - he won't go to sleep when unwrapped - particularly if he's crawling around. Help!!
Last edited by Ezz; September 16th, 2008 at 07:49 AM.
All I can say is same here! LOL. So - I continue to wrap.
With DS he was feeding to sleep, so he'd just get put down asleep and sleep unwrapped.. so it's completely different this time around. She also plays with her dummy too much if unwrapped and plays the drop the dummy out the cot game.
Big hugs, but it did settle down here after a few days, maybe a week.. They are going through a phase where they are just needing to try their new skills, no matter the time of day or night..
I just went with it. My DD normally feeds to sleep at night, but if at times, she wake while going from the lounge room to bed, I would just stay with her (and stop her moving and patting as like Ezz's DH), and she would drift off...
Hows it going Ezz? Our latest problem is that she gets out of her wrap and stands up and stays there til she's all upset. I've tried staying with her, and helping her lie down, but she thinks its a game. She's used to putting herself to sleep, so me being there as well as being unwrapped means it's playtime! hehe.
I have, the last few nights, been putting her in bed with us after feeding and leaving her arms out and she's slept quite well. So I'm just going to go with this for now to at least help her sleep unwrapped.. still gotta work on falling asleep unwrapped tho, coz through the night she's very sleepy through her feeds anyway so really I'm putting her down almost asleep.
My update (c'mon Ezz - don't let me take over this thread! LOL).
Last night I took the plunge and put her in a sleeping bag and put her in the cot. I put her on her tummy, this way she doesn't seem to be at such a loss for what to do with her arms. It's constant head up and trying to sit, and me saying 'lie down' and helping her back down and replacing the dummy. This went for quite a while, and as she got more and more tired, she was starting to lose it. So I got her out and lay down with her on our bed. She got sooooo close to being asleep, but fought it, and finally cracked it, so I fed her and put her in her cot to try again. I stroked her arms & face for a little while and she finally went off to sleep. Two hours it took all up. She still woke frequently for her feeds through the night, but went back to sleep easily unwrapped all night.
Through the day today I wrapped her because I just couldn't do this at every sleep hehe. If I wait til she's really tired, she doesn't fight her way out of the wrap, so I can still wrap her if need be.
Anyway, tonight.. again in sleeping bag. I don't really know how long it took, going back and going back and going back to lie her back down, but I was pretty impressed with myself at how calm and patient I was! LOL. I just figured I'd be consistent.. she wasn't getting that upset, I think her cries were more that she didn't really know what she was doing iykwim, it's like she's sitting up involuntarily and she doesn't really want to be sitting up!.. coz as soon as I came in and helped her lie down on her tummy again, she'd settle straight away. And as soon as the dummy went in, her eyes would roll, and I was just saying "you're soooo close, darling.. just go to sleep" . Anyway, she went to sleep And it certainly was far from 2 hours worth of effort.. so hopefully it will keep getting shorter and shorter!
It sounds like we trying similar things I can't believe you stuck at it for 2 hours - well done!!! - you have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more stamina than me. I would have given up and wrapped him (I've got a max of 30-40 mins).
My update:
I called Karitane & they suggested that I needed to lose the wrap. To do this, they said I should just keep tucking him in, walking out of the room, going back & tucking him in. (so that he knows he needs to lie down to sleep). They also suggested giving him a soft toy to hold (which I have done) & getting rid of the dummy (which I have not done).
So, we have had 2 nights now without a wrap & he has gone to sleep ok. The first night I had to pat him to sleep & it took about 30 mins. Last night it only took about 5 - and not much effort from me (but I think that's because he had cracked it earlier in the night & wore himself out!).
Today he put himself to sleep for his 1:30 sleep - just lay on his side playing with his dummy & fell asleep. He put himself to sleep for the 4:30 sleep too - but I had to calm him down a bit (he got cranky because he lost teh dummy - I think it fell out the side of the cot).
Anyway, he is still waking up very frequently (every hour or 2 overnight, and every 40 mins during the day) - but I'm hoping that will improve as he gets used to not being wrapped.
Crawling around the cot?
. It's doing my head in!
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