Getting My 5 Month Old into Her Crib for More than 20 Minutes!

Is she sleeping on her tummy? Can she lift her head?

Make sure you sleep with her crib sheets and blankets before you use them in her crib. Consider a fan or a white noise machine.. The swing makes a ticking noise, maybe lay her in the crib but have the swing going next to her to hear that rhythmic sound.

Place her in the crib with her head up against the corner of the bumper.

When you do all of the night time feedings, changing and burping, do it in as much darkness as possible, do not speak and do not make eye contact with her. The other thing we realized is that the wipes were cold, we purchased ans then used a wipe warmer and poof, it worked like a charm, none of that startle from the cold wipes.

You sound hesitant about the binky. With the binky, do you just go ahead and give it to her right away or do you have her cry for it? Some infants really just need that binky to sooth. I would automatically give it to her and not wait for the crying. It just gets her all riled up and harder to calm down. Follow her lead on that.

I know you just want sleep. You are also realizing her needs are very different from your first 2, just follow her lead with no preconceived ideas.
I am sending you good sleep very soon..

Is her crib a fun place to be? Lots of colorful things to look at? A mobile that moves to catch her attention? So you let her squirm a bit before getting her up, sometimes they might whine a little but fall back asleep if you give them the chance.
You might have just got lucky with the boys and your little girl is going to give you a run for your money....

I like what Laurie A said, and wanted to add a few more things.

My daughter was breastfed and slept through the night from 8pm til 6am from 2 weeks old, so I was blessed. But she went for the catnaps during the day, too, and was asleep, awake, asleep, awake, and I couldn't get anything done until I read something that said if they weren't sleeping a couple of hours at naps to not let them go to sleep for awhile, keep them up and engaged in an activity so they can get more tired. When she started to drift off I'd pick her up, talk to her in a normal voice, and do something with her so she couldn't go to sleep. I'd sit her up and shake noisy rattles in her face and put them in her hands, play music, we danced around and sang a lot : ) I'd put her in a front carrier sometimes as I did things, making noise along the way to keep her up. It is hard for them to sleep when you're making noise and are moving them around, lol! I didn't let her get all comfy until I wanted her to sleep, then I'd wrap her in a blanket and place her in her crib. She would sleep better, too, and I learned how long to keep her up so she'd sleep a couple of hours in the morning and afternoon.

She loved her swing as well, and at 5 1/2 months what got me to work on getting her to sleep in the crib was that it wasn't going to be safe for her once she reached a certain weight. I only put her in the crib when it was time to sleep so she'd associate sleep with the crib, I made sure she was tired, darkened the room with a blind, had a fan going to muffle sounds and kept the door closed once she was down. When she fussed I didn't pick her up, just talked to her softly and rubbed her tummy or stroked her head to relax her and soothe her, didn't make a lot of noise or turn lights on. I also began to put her in the swing less and less because she associated instantaneous sleep with it and not the crib. It took a LONG time to get her into the crib all the time :( so I hope all goes smooth for you!

I read (I think in the No Cry Sleep Solution) that to transition from swing to crib you should start stopping the swing once they have been asleep fro awhile. Then, once they are used to that, stop it as soon as they fall asleep. Then, once they are used to that, you put them in the swing, but never start it. Then, once they are used to that, the crib. You have my sympathy-my dd is 8 mo and i just transitioned her from her swing to crib for naps about 3 weeks ago! I let it go that long because she was a cat napper in her crib, but took good naps in her swing. I lucked out because when I finally decided we just had to make the transition (she is huge) she also started rolling over onto her tummy to sleep, and sleep immediately improved. I hope something like that happens for you! :)

My daughter will be 6months on Tuesday. She sleeps in her swing for naps she is a wonderful napper. But it has been the same thing since she was just a few weeks old. We made sure the environment she was falling asleep in was the same for naps and at night. We always feed her before her naps and bed. We always have her white noise machine going. And we always have a dim room. It took her a while to get on a schedule once I went back to work but the same routine was key with her. I feel for you. My little one would sleep from 830 until 2 wake up and go back to sleep. The transitioned to sleeping all night for about two weeks, now going to bed at night has been horrible since she doesn't have to wear her hip brace. It is amazing how sleep changes in months 5-6. Good luck routine is the key and white noise machine is wonderful to keep her asleep.

Does she ever sleep in her crib or is it always in her swing?