Transition to Crib - Take One

Yeah, that didn't go so well! Here's what happened.

Baby girl hit 2 months and so I thought that we should work on getting her to sleep in her crib rather than her rock n play. Now, please know that her rock n play has been in her room right next to her bed for several weeks and she has no problem sleeping in her room. In fact, we had never tried to put her in the crib at night. During naps she would wake up almost immediately upon being placed in the crib so we hadn't tried night time in the crib yet.

So, we did everything that we normally do but added a sleep sack thinking it might make her feel a little more bundled up. The first night she went down around 8:30 as normal and slept until 2:30, a bit earlier than normal but not bad. I went in and fed her, put her back in the crib and she fussed (not really crying) and thrashed her arms and legs until 4 am! I fed her again and put her back in the crib where she slept until 7. Not great but not terrible, I figured that it would get better as she adjusted to a more open space. 

Night two we followed the same bedtime routine at the same time but this time she woke up at 1 am, 4 am and 6 am with a lot of fussing to get back to sleep at those feedings. Night three she woke up at midnight and I caved and put her in the rock n play where she slept until 5 and then went back down until 7. 

I found myself googling sleep positioners and other such things, like propping baby in a boppy and nap nannies but none of those are safe to use in a crib when baby is unsupervised and so while I know that three nights really isn't enough time to really call the transition a failure but with the work week approaching and a big grant deadline I decided to reevaluate my motives for moving her, wasnt being safe and comfortable in her cradle preferable to unsafe sleeping in her crib or not sleeping well at all? i asked myself, is she too big for the cradle? No, she fits fine and the weight limit is 25 pounds. Is it inconvenient for us? No. Does the cradle cause developmental problems? No. Is it unsafe or unhealthy? No. So why was I so set to transition? Because my friends babies sleep in their cribs. Because my in laws joked that she might be in her cradle until kindergarten. Because that's just what you do.

Well, we'll try again in a few weeks and see if it goes a little better. Maybe once she figures out the thumb thing or learns how to roll over to get comfortable it will go better. Maybe when she is clearly uncomfortable in the confines of the cradle.