Moving into her cot feels like a step backwards

[Taler]

My DD has recently moved into her own room and into a cot from her Moses basket.

I realise there's bound to be a bit of a settling in period but it feels like a huge step back.

Plenty of night wakings, some requiring the dummy to be put back in, others just for comfort.

In fairness she has gone from a small cosy Moses basket to a big cot with lots of space around her. It's no wonder she may feel unsettled.

But does anyone have any suggestions as to how to make it nicer for her? Or any words of comfort that the constant getting up and down with her through the night won't last long?

Is she too big for the moses basket? I put mine in the basket in the cot for a few weeks till they got used to the new room etc?

Yes she is unfortunately

She should be in your room until she's at least six months old because of the SIDS risk - how old is she? She may still need feeds at night too, not just the dummy.

Realise the SIDS risk but its a personal choice. Plenty of parents move their babies into their own room a lot earlier (which I'm not saying is right, just personal choice). My daughter no longer fits her Moses basket and is not hungry in the middle of the night. In fairness to her I think it's just a settling in period.

If she's just moved from a Moses basket then she's probably more than young enough to still be hungry at night.

I've heard loads of people say that their dc grew out of the Moses basket around 4 months old. If this is the same for your dd then you may have also just got the 4 month growth spurt/sleep regression stage which does mean she may be hungry or just need extra comfort for a while.

I put rolled up towels along the sides and above her head in the cot so it felt smaller for her. It seemed to work well. P

She's about 20 weeks, isn't she Taler? As Tink says, she's plenty young enough to still need feeds at night. Just because she didn't have them last week doesn't mean she won't this week. Babies have radically different needs from one week to the next.|

We recently moved our DS over to his cotbed. Initially, we put him back in the moses basket in the cotbed so he had that closeness and warmth.

When he really did get too big for that (his head and feet practically touching at either end) (around 22-24 weeks) we moved him to the cotbed, but packed him in with a load of rolled up blankets on either side, below his face, so he couldn't roll over.

Over time (and as he's got better at rolling and self-supporting), we gradually ended up using fewer blankets on either side although we still have one on each side to support him/give him something to hold onto.

I started back to work a few weeks ago which coincided with a raft of coughs and colds and viruses so he started sleeping with us in our bed (he's now 8 months). Getting him back has been difficult as our bed is warmer, softer, has an all-night milk bar and mummy and daddy for comfort.

So we put a cellular blanket under his cotbed fitted sheet, raised the head of the mattress with a towel (all-night coughing not helping - we put him to sleep on his side with blankets supporting when he was coughing a lot - really helped), added another cellular blanket on top of the sheet, put a bunny teddy next to him to hold onto (he started liking this at around 7 months) and use a couple of moses basket flat sheets tucking him in on top of his sleeping bag (mimics our duvet on his legs and feels like a hug).

We've arrived at this after a lot of trial and error, but it works. Starting nursery and learning to nap without being fed to sleep has really helped him self-settle as well.

Maybe ask yourself if you would sleep in the cot (and if not, how would you make it nicer/comfier/warmer etc) would be a good starting point?

Also - so much is going on at that age. Our best sleep spell so far was around 4 months when he'd only wake up once for a feed (breastfed). Since then we've had to contend with illness, moving rooms, teething, weaning to solids, starting nursery, learning to crawl, crawling, learning to stand etc etc

If you had that much going on in your life, you'd want a bit of comfort!

Good luck :)