Why won't he sleep in his cot?

[isobel79]

Hello

Just after some tips:

My LO is 6 months. He'll fall asleep with me. I'll put him in his cot. Within the hour he'll wake up. I'll put him in my bed and he'll go back to sleep ....... eventually. I don't know what to do. I don't like co-sleeping as I feel he'll get so used to it that it will be a long term thing. He'll wake in the night for a feed. He'll fall back to sleep again and i put him in his cot. He realises that he's not in my bed and again I have to put him in bed with me. Is he going through separation anxiety or sleep regression? I just don't know and I'm soooooo tired.

Any suggestions?

Ta

Probably not what you want to hear, but my DS never slept in his cot. He went from a co-sleeper crib, to co-sleeping for a while, to sleeping in a normal double bed at around 1. I think his problem was that he rolled around so much he kept crashing into the sides and waking himself up, and as he has much more room in bed he sleeps better. Still not great though, and he's 2 now.

and - the lack of sleep is horrific!

Look up sleep association. He wakes up and isn't where he fell asleep so cries. He needs to fall asleep in his cot not on you.

My ds was the same. I put him to bed barely awake and just kept going in and shush shush. Not spoke or lifted him out. He slept through on the third night! When your baby is waking up he doesnt know where he is as the cot isn't where he went to sleep!!

My son was similar, sleepyhead helped a lot as I could put him in the cot asleep and he was less likely to wake. Eventually he started self settling but I'd have gone stir crazy without the sleepyhead. Expensive but worth every penny for us. They sell well second hand too. My small one sold for £60, paid £100 so made more than half back.

Agree with piggies.

He's beginning to develop object permanence, so conditions in his room when he falls asleep need to be the same as when he roused from a sleep cycle, otherwise he'll panic a bit. That theoretically means going to sleep in his cot and without you there (the holy grail of going down "sleepy but awake").

The analogy is if you went to sleep in your bed and woke up at midnight in the front garden would you roll over and go back to sleep, or would you wake right up going "WTF?!"

No advice but you have my sympathy as am going through it with DS at the moment he won't go down in his cot and will only fall asleep on my boob. If I try and put him down once appearing asleep he will wake and cry. Currently co-sleeping which am not happy about grrr

So to you!

Dragon would be interested to hear more about how you did the shush shush thing. Trying to get my DS2 to go to sleep without the boob (going back to work soon and he feeds to sleep every time) Did he cry for long? How old was he when you did it? Thanks

Thank everyone for your replies. I might have to try and let him fall asleep in his cot. That way if he does wake he'll realise he's in the same place where he fell asleep. Problem I have is I live in apartments so if he starts screaming I literally have to put him in with me. But what I might do starting this week is letting him fall asleep in his cot. Wish me luck

Good luck! Let us know how it goes?

Yes definitely be curious to find out how you get on