Weaning DS off the Sleepyhead - nightmare!

[sunnyfields25]

Hi

We've just stopped using 7 month old DS's Sleepyhead, and are instead putting him straight into his cot. Last night wasn't great - had to get up 5 or so times to put dummy back in, something we've never had to do before. And today he is refusing to sleep for his naps. All I can think is the amount of free space is freaking him out. He seems to be flapping his arms around and banging them on the mattress quite a bit.

I suppose I'm hoping someone can tell me that they went through something similar and it only lasted a few days...

Have you considered getting the sleepyhead grand? My 2 year old is still in his - think it goes up to 3 years old. I’m hoping that by the time my lo is 3 I can transition him to a big boy bed and he’ll be excited about that and not notice the sleepyhead is gone lol! Good luck!

That sounds hard ... could you dismember the Sleepyhead and just use the noodle bit, under the sheet? Maybe a slightly larger sheet. You could then move it out a centimetre at a time as he gets used to it. We've done that and so far so good (my baby is 6 months and still in small Chico cot though).

Thanks both for your replies!

@Aria2015 Yep I briefly considered the Grand but then realised we can't justify spending that much money, plus it would be tricky to transport and I could do with DS being able to sleep in a travel cot for when we have nights away. Shame, as it would have been the simplest solution.

@RebeccaNoodles I'd read something similar to this online and wondered about trying it. But then I talked myself out of it for fear of it not being safe. I'm sure it is, as it's not much different to actually having the Sleepyhead there, I just worry myself unnecessarily about these things!

No I get you being nervous. A sleep consultant recommended it to me in fact if that reassures ... I suppose the safest of all things is just flat firm mattress but the Sleepyhead is breathable so as long as the sheet is snug I think it's fine. It's such an easy way to comfort her I'd hate to have to give it up!!

We bought a sleepyhead grand after a failed attempt to transition dd out of her little sleepyhead. We were ground down with exhaustion! At about 20m she used it to climb out of her cot so it had to go, cold turkey. This time, for some reason, it was no problem. So if you don't succeed now don't worry that you'll still be carting the thing round til they're 6 years old, like I was worried about

@RebeccaNoodles - Thanks, that is good to know about the sleep consultant recommendation. I'll maybe see how the next couple of nights go and then reconsider trying that.

@BunloafAndCrumpets oh no that doesn't sound good! Out of interest can you remember how long you stuck it out, with DD unable to sleep, before you resorted to buying the grand?

On reflection it was maybe a bit naive of me to think we could just remove it from the cot and DS wouldn't notice!

Probably about three weeks. We're not very tenacious. 😬I hope you have better luck. The sticking the inner under the sheet thing sounds a good idea! 🤞🏻