Self-soothes on floor mattress but not in cot

[Helen120]

My 9.5 month old has spent the last two months or so sleeping on a floor mattress in his room, happily doing 7pm-7am straight through. But now I'm transferring him to his cot once he's asleep or drowsy, and he wakes up 2 or 3 times a night and needs me to get back to sleep! He can self-soothe perfectly on the floor but not in the cot. I just don't understand:

• the mattress is the same as on the floor
• I alternate the covers so it still smells right
• he rolls around and changes position frequently while asleep, but he's doing that in the cot as well so I don't think it's lack of space
• he can manage fine without me, if he's on the floor
• it's not teething or anything (we've had that before and it looks different), it's more like he's forgotten what to do

Now he's crawling it's not safe for him on the floor any longer (for complex reasons, baby-proofing the room isn't an option at the moment). I just don't understand why he can self-soothe on the floor but not in the cot! Any thoughts?

Strange! Is there really no way to make the floor bed safe? I had mine in a floor bed till she was ready for a big girl bed, she was a disaster in the cot. Could it be too interesting e.g just the fact that it is vertical stripes for the bars?

It may take a while for him to adjust to the change

Hi @crazychemist, hadn't thought that the cot may just be too interesting! We've settled on a routine where I transfer him to the cot, if he cries he gets 10 mins to self-settle and then I'll go in and feed him for 10 mins before putting him back in. He only cries for a couple of mins after that, maximum six or seven minutes, which I hate but seems to be semi-working. He's only waking once or twice now, so I'm hoping he's slowly getting used to it.

We're also trying to do the morning nap in the cot now, so hopefully it's moving in the right direction. But yes, maybe he's just going to always be a bad cot-sleeper and it'll improve once he's in a toddler bed!