Ideas for Transitioning to Crib (No CIO, Please)

Hi there!

Is it possible to suspend the hammock over the crib so that he is still sleeping in the hammock, but in the crib space? This might help make the transition easier for him (and you!)...

Good luck!
A.

CIO is Cry It Out to those people who didn't read the whole message...

anyway, I personaly would wait a couple more months. I have not used a hammock, he is 15 mo now... at about 2yrs you will have to transition again to a twin bed or toddler bed from the crib. that would be a lot of sleepless nights. I would let him sleep in the hammock a couple more months and around 20mo transition him to the toddler bed. Let him take only daytime nap in the bed. that way if he wakes up it is light in his room and he wont be so frightened. after a week of that, try night time. at 15 mo he is still alittle to young to understand the concepet of "big boy" waighting a little longer will be much easier.

I would slowly transition him, Move his hammock in his room and after a week or two, try having him take his naps in his crib, and then it should be a smoother trasition.
also, they make great 2 way baby monitors so you can talk back to your baby and give him reasuring gestures that your still close, and or on the way I love mine.

What is CIO? I googled it - but nothing related to babies, sleeping, or cribs came up.

Could you put the baby hammock in his room and him in it there so he can get used to being in a quieter place in his comfy bed that he is used to sleeping in? Then putting him in his crib after a couple of weeks might not be as big of a deal. I think sometimes they cry because they are used to the noises of you guys sleeping and in thier room it is quieter. If that doesn't work you might try having a baby monitor for him to hear your noises instead of you hearing his. I haven't tried either of these since we put our kids in their cribs the day they came home from the hospital but it might work. You could try with a nap first to see what happens.

Babies/toddlers can get pretty upset by disruptions to their normal routine. I suggest bringing the crib into your room to introduce him to crib sleeping. And I would stay in the room with him until he's asleep. He might make a bit of a fuss but as long as you don't leave him in the room alone, he hopefully will realize everything is okay even if it feels a bit weird. Plus you'll be right there in the event the fussiness turns to something from frantic. We started transitioning our son into his crib at six months. I can say that nearly every night he'd wake up wanting to nurse and would end up back in our bed, which was fine with us. It took a few months for us to move the crib out of our room and to get him to go to sleep in the crib in his room. Good luck.

CIO? I don't know what that is. Anyway - since your baby is in a hammock - he is really snug and secure. when you put him in another bed of some sort - he probably feels not as snug and secure. Maybe what you could do is wrap him in a blanket to give him the secure feeling. Just a thought.

I found a great book that I know some other moms on mamasource have suggested before. "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. She has some great ideas on how to get cosleeping babies into their own beds/cribs.

Good Luck!

Before you take any action, I highly recommend Penelope Leach's books. In one of them, she describes how a loving mother gently puts her child in its crib, in the pretty room she painted and decorated. When the baby begins to cry, she pauses, but remembers what her mother told her... "it's good for them to cry." Still she hesitates, but eventually leaves the room, quietly closing the door, as her baby weeps. Ms. Leach's philosophy is that a baby's cry sounds serious because it IS serious. They do not know how to manipulate at this age, they are just expressing their desperation at being left alone.
Many cultures do not advocate this separation/privacy thing with babies. In fact I read that the most content babies were the ones who spent the most time being with their mothers and fathers. After reading several of Leach's books, I decided to listen to what my son was trying to tell me, and I didn't leave him. When he got too big for our bed, he slept on a sleeping bag in our room. Eventually we got him a car bed from Toys R Us, and he transitioned at about 3 yrs old. Occasionally he would visit the sleeping bag when he got lonely, but it was not forced. Today my son is 16, and I have never regretted my decision to look at the situation thru the eyes of my child, and realize I needed to understand what was behind his grief. Some will disagree with me, but I invite you to read her books and decide for yourself. Sorry I can't remember the titles, it was a long time ago, yet feels like yesterday. Treasure these years, and good luck to you and your family.

I checked out the web site for Amby baby hammock. It looks like a great product. I do see your concern about how to transition to a "normal" bed. I see that he is getting too old and to mobile to remain in the baby hammock.

My suggestion is to get a larger hammock. My uncle had one that was free standing. Or you with the help of knowledgeable carpenter you could create your own two "trees" to hang a hammock from. I would create a low to the floor hammock for him in his own room. It would be important to have a stiff bar at each end that would keep the hammock open as opposed to one that would cocoon your son. He would need to be able to get in and out without falling. A pad underneath would be a good idea for when he does fall.

If you make the move to the new big boy hammock an exciting thing, it should go smoothly. You may need to put a pad on the floor in his room for you to "sleep" on in the beginning so he is not lonely. A fish tank is also a good idea to keep him company and provide some white noise.

Good luck

Since you mentioned that you had an Amby Baby hammock, maybe you could check their website for imformation. There are parent testamonials and contact information. They might have advice. Good luck. Transitions are easy for anyone involved, but they are nessesary.
http://www.ambybaby.com/

First, I don't agree with CIO either, but with that in mind, it's going to take longer being more gentle. We haven't used a baby hammock, but did have our daughter in a pack-n-play in our room from the day we brought her home. When we were ready to move her to her crib in her room (around 4 months I think), we started by moving her pnp about 4 feet every couple days towards where her crib would be in her own room. We let her be in her room in her pnp for a couple days and then tried putting her down in her crib. She didn't sleep as soundly for a couple days, but then was okay in her crib. That being said, she got sick about a month after we had her happy in her crib and then she moved into our bed. That was over a year ago! :) She's now about 20 months and sleeps with us most nights. We're setting up her full sized bed tonight and are going to try to transition her there over the next month or so. Wish us luck!!

Noot sure if this will help or not but when my twins stopped co sleeping at around 13 months we got them an aquarium with fish and set it up in their bedroom. We would go in at nap time and talk and sing to the fish till they fell asleep. We would do the same thing at night. If they woke up the light on the tank was there for them and they could also talk and sing to the fish. They loved this and it helped with white noise in the background for them. I never did CIO and felt it did not work for us. Good for you for sticking to your guns. Good luck to you

Hi
I know this request is old, but I forgot about it until I was cleaning out my inbox.
Hopefully you have found a solution, but if not, I have a small idea. When we moved our son from the co-sleeper to the crib, I realized the crib mattress was this hard, crunchy cold big airy thing, and he was used to sleeping cuddled and soft in a snuggly thing. I found a sheepskin mattress pad that is short pile (for breathing safety), and this helped him not wake up when I put him down, and sleep longer. He still uses it at 2 1/2. I found it at Lawson's, an online merchant. We love it, he uses it year round. We slept on it for a few nights together so that it smelled like our bed, and it was so comfortable!

Another idea would be to check the askdrsears website, as they promote the Amby baby hammock there.

best wishes. I'm gonna do an Amby baby next time around, they look great!

CW,

I can understand your pickle. I have 16 month old twins that my husband and I are currently moving out of our bed so we can make room for baby # 3. I know our way is slightly different since we have two but maybe something will help. We have an inflatable mattress on the floor (no crib). At nap I lay down with them and get them to sleep in their room. Then I leave and do whatever I need to do. At night when it is bedtime, we have a routine. Eat dinner, play, bathtime (unless too messy from dinner), books, snuggle and then lights out. My husband lays them down to sleep and once they are asleep he leaves. We are doing this for a month and then he will try not sleeping on the same mattress they are he will move to a different one. And then so on and so forth until he is back in bed with me.

Get him transitioned into his crib for naps, then work on nighttime. You don't need to let him cry it out. But you do need to teach him how to comfort himself and that will most likely involve some crying. Really, once you are committed to getting him transitioned it isn't so bad. Develop a routine, get him all dozy, comfy and settled, then put him in his crib for the nap while he is still awake. If he fusses then comfort him, but do not pick him up. If he continues wait a minute or two and then comfort him again but still don't pick him up. Continue the routine.... He will get it as long as you are persistent. If you give in and pick him up, you have undone all your hard work. Good luck!

We are in the middle of transitioning our 16 month old to a toddler bed. She has slept with us on and off her whole life. Currently, she seems to prefer to sleep in her crib that is at the foot of our bed (we really lucked out that the height of our bed is about that of the crib). We dropped the side of the crib that is next to the foot of the bed. She struggled at first, but I think she liked the extra room and decided it was okay. She is welcome to crawl into our bed whenever she wants, typically comes up for a cuddle, tries to fall asleep but can't because she runs into us and eventually chooses to go back to the crib on her own. After I nurse her and we read books, she grabs her kitty and crawls into her crib on her own ("bye mom") and turns on the fish thing (we have a crib toy, that plays music and a fish waves in the water, that she likes to watch). Someteims she likes me to stay in the room with her while she falls asleep and other times she is okay with me leaving. This seems to be working well for us. We really haven't had any need to use CIO. Good luck in whatever you try.

I would start by having him sleep in his hammock, but put it in his room close to his crib. That way he can get used to the new surroundings before trying the new bed. I am not sure I would even go for a crib. I transitioned my boys to a toddler bed at 16 months, and they did great.

Why does he need to transition to a crib? I guess the Amby is only rated to a certain weight, but think outside the crib for a moment. Millions of kids are sleeping with their parents. There are other solutions too. What about finding a child sized hammock to hang in his room, hang it low so he can get in and out on his own. Put pillows below it in case he ever falls out. I know a 4yo who sleeps in a swing suspended from the ceiling in his room. He likes the rocking motion and the sides of the swing hold him in. Your son might also like a waterbed. Outgrowing the beloved Amby hammock doesn't mean he must sleep in a crib!

With my daughter we transitioned her from her craddle in our room to her crib. Some advice I got from a friend was to use a sleep positioner to make her feel more safe and snug. I didn't have one, but I had a chaning pad with sides that slope upward. I put it in her crib and started out laying her down in it for daytime naps until she got used to it. Then we tried nights.

Somtimes it didn't work and she would wake up crying, and I would have to put her back in her craddle for the rest of the night, but after a while she got used to it.

Somtimes I would also let her sit and play in her crib during the day so that she got used to the surroundings so she wouldn't wake up and be scared because she didn't know where she was.

My daughter slept in a crib until 15 months when we finally moved her to a toddler bed. We had actually tried earlier (around 13 months) but she threw such a fit. As it turned out she just needed time. We kept her in the crib for two months more and tried again. The second time there were no problems.

I've never used a hammock, they weren't available when I had my kids, but why not rock him to sleep and then put him in his crib for the transition? Is it possible to install the hammock in his room? At 15 mo. it won't be long and he'll be ready for a toddler bed, so if your crib is convertible to this, it might be the way to go from the hammock to the toddler bed. I'm not a fan of CIO either, never have been. Crying is a baby's way of communicating, so it's important to listen and respond, soothe and comfort, build a sense of trust and reliability. Giving him a teddy bear to snuggle and a warm blanket to cover with might also help. Take good care and continued sweet dreams!!!