I see trouble ahead...

[ChristmasEveMummy]

Hi all,

Looking for some pearls of wisdom for the next sleep stage.

My DS is 5 months old and since 10 weeks we have found a combination of swaddling/dummy/white noise works really well - he has slept through on a handful of occasions but if/when he does wake through the night he is easily settled again with his dummy and doesn't usually need a feed. We dropped the white noise a while back but still swaddle and use the dummy.

The situation at the minute is that he is still in our room in his Moses basket but he is getting too big for that so I think we will soon move him into a cot in his own room. At the same time he has taken a dislike to being swaddled and can now fight off all the blankets, at which time he wakes himself up. That would be ok, however as soon as his arms are free he pulls his dummy out (then cries for it but as soon as he is given it back he pulls it out again.. And on it goes).

So basically all at once I am facing: moving him into a cot, no swaddle and potentially no dummy.

I'm not expecting it to be easy at all but does anyone have any suggestions as far as how to make it easier?

Thank you so much in advance xxx

If it was me I would find a way to put the full sized cot in my bedroom. Even if it means moving your chest of drawers out of your room and into the nursery to make room.

Having baby next to you is sooooooo much easier than padding across the hall into another room at every wake up. So I'd go for furniture out of bedroom to fit the cot in.

The pulling dummy out is a phase that they grow out of. It is to do with when baby 'discovers their hands' and first learns that they can control their hands to hold things and inspect things. We swaddled through this stage but it was passed by 5 months, you shouldn't be far off.

As a transition out of the swaddle we used a tightly tucked in blanket instead. A cot sheet put across ways (rather than lengthways) at the feet to foot position to 'pin down' gives a similar tight, secure feeling like a swaddle.

Hi, thank you so much for your advice.
Totally see where you're coming from with the not moving him to another room - I hadn't thought about that but think we will have to find a way to keep him in our room!

I'm relieved to hear that the dummy pulling is just another stage!! He's been doing it for around 3-4 weeks now so really hoping we are approaching the end of that.

His arms are a nightmare though - last night for example he woke every hour so I think that is the bit I am most worried about. Do they also grow out of the 'naughty arms' stage?

I had the same worry with mine moving him out of his basket and swaddle. He was almost five months and we put him in a grobag sleeping bag in his cotbed. And amazingly, he slept even better than in his basket. His flailing arms were less of a problem in a bigger space and the sleeping bag seemed to give him the same wrapped feeling as the swaddle, and meant he couldn't lose any blankets.

Thanks so much Little for the reassurance, it sounds like you did exactly what we are going to have to do so keeping my fingers crossed that it will go well for us like it did for you

I was dreading moving DS to his cot at 4.5 months when he grew too big for the bed nest however the night I moved him he slept through and we didn't look back! He was literally waking 3-4 times every night. You might find he needs more room and that you and yur partner might be disturbing him without realising it.
Sleeping bags are a great idea too. I don't have experience of a dummy (little bugger wouldn't take one! So can't comment on that.
I guess my point is sometimes we are resistant to too much change when actually it could be just what's needed. Good luck!

Thank you for your advice starfish! Yep totally see what you mean - maybe it's just time to take the plunge! In fact I think it definitely is as he woke every 2 hours last night wish me luck!!