Baby swings- are they ok to use? baby wont sleep unless being held

[kbaby]

My DD whose 4 weeks old will not allow me to put her down. Shell lie on the floor for 10 minutes while shes awake but if shes sleeping you cant lie her down. Ive tried a moses basket and a bouncy chair and she wakes within 5 minutes crying. Shes only happy being held. Ive bought a swing and today she has actually slept in the swing which is a achievment. However i know that babies need to lie flat and that keeping them upright in a sitting position is supposed to damage their backs. Would i be doing dd harm by allowing her to nap in the swing. Anyone else using one all the time
thanks

I did with my last baby who was just as you describe. Without it we'd all have collapsed with exhaustion! Oh and in case you worry about bad habits, by the age of 6 months he was having two seperate 2 hour sleeps a day and he sleeps 12 hours a night . You have to do what you can to get a rest when they're this age. I'd recommend a book called the no cry sleep solution by Eliabeth Pantley - it's a real sanity saver! Lots of sympathy, unless you've had one of those un-put-downable babies it's hard to appreciate just how tricky life is with them...

kbaby, go for it. It 's not a long term solution and I'm sure you'll still hold her some of the time so I think it'll be Ok. WOuld she lie in her pram and be rocked to sleep that way?

TBH your sanity is worth saving so a short while each day shouldn't do her any harm but will do you good.

Good luck

I used mine (and sometimes still use) my swing for daytime naps for DS - wouldn't leave him in it overnight, but am sure that it will be fine for daytime naps.

kbaby, our swing was the best thing we bought when ds was a baby. He did used to have naps in it sometimes, but it came in especially handy for those late afternoon/early evening times when babies get notoriously difficult. We would put him in the swing and he would doze while I cooked dinner or tidied up, etc etc.

Don't worry about it becoming too much of a habit, as Skara said, my ds was also having two day-time sleeps in his cot and sleeping all night by the time he was 6 months old. He is still a great sleeper now. I think it's just difficult in the beginning because you have to get their sleep patterns established and they do like to be held/rocked. I remember trying everything to get ds to sleep in his crib, I even used to turn the hair dryer on and the sound would make him fall asleep. Other times I would rock the crib until he dozed off, or I'd put him in the swing for a nap if he wouldn't go down anywhere else. I think you just have to do whatever works initially, & a swing is a great way of settling the baby if you want to have a bit of a rest or get on with something else. It really was one of the best investments we made when ds was a baby.

Remember, your baby has spend the last few months of her life curled up like a prawn and being constantly jiggled and moved about - this is just an extension of that which is probably while babies tend to like it so much. It's familiar and comforting. Also in cultures all around the world babies are never put down for naps, but are carried, curled up, tied to their mother with cloth to recreate the jiggling, swaying and rythmic movement of the womb - and they don't all have humpbacks as adults!

Oh, sympathy, both of mine were like this. I used a swind with ds for daytime naps. I found that the nightime sleep was only possible if I slept with them up to about 8 weeks (iirc). I slept of a futon with them and it worked fine. We both slept and they made the transition to sleeping alone with no problems in small steps.

Ds is now a strapping 4 year old with no sleeping probelms

This will pass!

We love our swing too. Like others below it truely is a godsend especially when they start getting a bit fractious. I would use it on a fast setting to get ds off to sleep, and then once they had fallen asleep, over a couple of days or so, I reduced the speed until I got to the point where once ds had fallen asleep I could stop the swinging and he would stay sleeping. I used the swing for my dd too, and by the time she was 6 months too she didn't neeed it at all as she too was taking all her naps in her cot.

Definately a great baby buy. Go for it kbaby

We got a vibrating chair (like the one Miranda had in Sex and the City). It was a lifesaver and made a great foot massager when DS went to bed.

When the sluglet was in SCBU I say lots of small, very sick babies being put in swings by the nurses. If it's good enough for seriously ill babies, it's good enough for you. The sluglet had one and we wouldn't have been without it. She's a fantastic sleeper now.

Ooohhh I could not have done without DDs swing and will definately be purcahsing another for DS when he gets here!!

Thanks everyone for the support.