I have a question about the "s" word-Sleep! Mattie is a great sleeper at night, I can out him down awake and he goes to sleep- no problem. Only wakes to eat and goes right back down. :D
My problem is with naps. Because he is a silent refluxer it is hard to tell when he is uncomfortable. He was often cranky during the day. One thing that always made him feel better was his swing, so I got into the bad habit of letting him nap in his swing. :(
Now he's 4 1/2 months and it seems like his reflux is really under control. :D Also, he is getting a little too big for the swing and he seems uncomfortable. I really need to know how to transition him into his crib for naps. Crying it out does not seem like an option to me, it just makes his reflux worse and how do I know for sure if he is crying because he's in the crib or because he doesn't fell well, or because he's teething, etc...? Plus, I just don't like the idea. Any suggestions???

Oh Man, Swing addiction. That's a hard one. We almost got there too, but then he started to hate the swing to the point where he would cry when we just walked by it. I kept thinking about what I would do when he grew out of it.

I guess what you could try is let the swing put him to sleep and then carefully put him into the crib. If this works, then just let the swing get him drowsy then put him in the crib. That way he will be sleepy and hopefuly be able get himself to sleep over time. If it's hard to get from swing to crib(swing down stairs, crib up for ex.), you could put the swing closer to the crib.

Also, is the crib elevated at all? Maybe the crib is uncomfy for him during the day.

My refluxer always did pretty well at night too (That's another reason why we couldn't get our diagnoses, and I kept swinging back and forth between "he's O.K". and "there's something wrong"), during the day was a totaly different story though. He'll have some days with no sleep at all.

I hope you figure out something that works. CIO is sooo hard. I just don't have it in me. Especially when reflux is an issue.

Mattie's so young that he probably takes lots of naps, so maybe my advice won't be helpful. But...

We've found that feeding Daniel one hour before putting him down and less before bedtime helps him sleep a little better. I know -- it's conterintuitive -- you think you should fill them up and they'll sleep better and longer.

We never let Daniel cry it out either. He'd get so upset that he'd throw up. Now we rock him til he gets really drowsy, then lay him down. And if he wakes up at night (which hardly ever happens anymore -- yay) we can usually just pat his butt til he falls back to sleep. Our ped totally sympathizes and doesn't recommend crying it out for us, either.

Good luck!

We didn't have the swing nap problem. But what I find work for Zoee was her Ocean Aqua Fish Music Box. We would put it on when we put her into bed or Baby lubbaly(sp) music. Zoee loves that. She sleeps good in the day but at night, What is sleep? :lol: I think that her reflux is worse at night and that is why I am up 2 to 5x a night with her.
I didn't do the cry it out thing either. Our doctor think that I should do that at night with Zoee but Iwouldn't.

Good Luck!

Shannon

Ya, crying it out really isn't an option for refluxers b/c crying and agitation like that will make the reflux much worse.

During Shae's worst time, I just decided that I would whatever I could to make her comfortable, and help her sleep during that time period and worry about the consequences later.

As far as to tell what is bothering him when he is crying in the crib...my guess would be that if you pick him up out of the crib and he stops crying and seems fine then it's the crib.

Can you try a bouncy chair or is he too big for that? Although there are toddler sized ones that we used with Shae when she got bigger.

Evan's so tall that he quickly outgrew his swing, too. We had to rock him to sleep and then carry him up to his room until he was somewhere around 2 1/2 years. Crying was out because of the risk of choking, and also because we'd have to change him and his bed, and also wash him up. Evan would often wake and cry when lowered into his crib. When he was 19 months, we switched him to a twin-sized bed. He no longer woke when lowered down and he can now fall asleep in his own bed. Often my dh will kneel beside him with his head on Evan's pillow to help him fall asleep, especially if he wakes afraid during the night.

Stacey,

I notice that your question was posted in March (when my DS was born) and that it is now 4 months later....BUT I read your post and I am going into the crib transition right now. I was wondering how it all fared out with you and yoru son with the crib/swing situation?
My DS is 4 months old NOW and I am also having napping issues with him. He goes down fine in his crib at night, but during naps it's 50/50 wether or not I'm going to have to fight w/him. Just wanted to know how it all turned out! Let me know!

I would also like to see an answer to this one, Alexys is a swing addict. She sleeps great in her crib at night, she doesnt have to even be sleeping to lay her down in it. But during the day I just cant get her to nap anywhere but on me or in the swing.

EXACTLY!

I am happy to say that Mattie is almost 9 months now and he naps like a champ. One thing that made it so much better was his ability to roll onto his stomach- I think that is one of the reasons he became uncomfortable in his swing.
At first, I let him fall asleep in his swing, then I turned it off. I think that got him away from needing the motion. Then, once he fell asleep I took him out of the swing and put him in his crib. Finally, all we do now is turn on the music from the swing, sit in the rocking chair, sometimes with a bottle, and go to sleep. It seems like the music signals him that sleep is coming.
Also, I bought black out liners for his windows. It helped with naps A LOT. And he isn't up with the sun every morning!!
How long are your babies awake before you try to get them to nap? Is possible that they are over tired?
Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Well...it varies...he will nap in his crib half of the time. Usually he'll only sleep up to 40 min or so in the crib. I can pretty much tell if he throws a HUGE fit and fights that he needs to be rocked and calmed down...he will "usually" go back down in the crib once he's sleepier and calmed. Sometimes he whimpers a bit and just falls asleep. Other times he just plain wants NOTHING to do w/the crib so I give in and let him in the swing. :roll: (bad habit)
He naps on and off all day and it makes me nuts! He JUST started this...he use to sleep a good hour in the morning and a GOOD 2-3 hours late afternoon. NOW the past 3 weeks he sleeps off and on all day, 4-5 half hour to fourty min. cat naps. I'm HOPING this is a phase like everything else and will change soon. :roll:

He naps on and off all day and it makes me nuts! He JUST started this...he use to sleep a good hour in the morning and a GOOD 2-3 hours late afternoon. NOW the past 3 weeks he sleeps off and on all day, 4-5 half hour to fourty min. cat naps. I'm HOPING this is a phase like everything else and will change soon. :roll:
That's how the first months of Evan's life were, too. Then, sometime between 6 and 8 months, he outgrew his morning nap. The afternoon nap was gone by 19 months. Now I'm guessing that he had trouble sleeping because of the pain, as he was only diagnosed and medicated at 19 months. At 3 years, he's generally a great night-time sleeper.

Alexys used to take fairly regular naps too, about an hour after she got up and a REALLY long one in the afternoon....now she still goes to sleep after she gets up but only for a half hour or so and ONLY in the swing. THen she takes about 4-5 catnaps during the day, maybe 1-2 of them in her crib the rest in her swing. She does sleep fabulous at night though, going to bed around 7 and usually sleeping until 6-7. She really puts up a fight to go in the crib during the day, and I just end up putting her in the swing because I get tired of fighting with her. I tried for 2 wks to really stick to it thinking she was just playing me and knew Id give in, I even put the swing away so I wouldnt be tempted but she just didnt sleep. Dont know what Im going to do when she outgrows it :shock:

Amy,

Alexys really sounds like Zac! He sleeps great at night from 830-700 waking up to eat at 4am...but won't sleep in his crib during the day...only swing...well, if i put him to sleep in the crib he's awake w/in 30-40 min. and he too, has started taking 4-5 cat naps all day.