6 month old that hates his cot.....wahhhhhh

[sairyfairy]

my lo started to sleep through at 8 weeks! then he got a nasty cold and started teething since then he just won't sleep in his cot! He has really good naps in his pushchair but after reading the baby whisperer book i think this could be part of the prob. She says that babies should sleep n nap in the same place. For the past month or so DS has ended up in bed with me and DP at night.

Its deffo time for bedtime training so i've started pupd routine on mon starting with his morning nap. The idea is to get him to sleep in his cot for that nap then move on to his next nap and then bedtime ( a step at a time as it says in the book). It's not going well though. He gets more and more upset each time i pick him up and after i manage to calm him down he gets upset as soon as i take him near his cot. Waaaaahhhh.

Should i try pupd at each nap/sleep or just try controlled crying?
Sx

Ds only started having naps in his cot at 9mo - before that he prefered my lap (which meant that I couldn't do anything much, but there we go...) It was difficult getting him to settle in his basket at night to start with, but this got easier and by 6mo fairly good about it.

Not sure that this helps - but I didn't push the cot early on (apart from at night when felt it was really important - not prepared to co-sleep unless dh not sharing bed due to him being very heavy (both ways) sleeper), so had no problems with ds associating cot with being left or anything - I was next to him for 1st 6 mo, then available quickly (going next door to his own room) after that.

I would have loved it if he had slept anywhere other than my arms or the buggy (or car), but that didn't happen, and I now have quite a reasonable sleeper who actively likes his bedroom and bed.

do you think maybe i should let him have his pram naps for now and just concentrate on the cot for bedtime then? I personally don't mind him napping in his pram but would really love my bed back.

thanks for giving me hope

DS didn't go in his cot ever until 6 months (bedtimes only) and then naps also at 8.5 months. Now he naps in there every time. I just got a feeling when he was ready (corny, isn't it!) - don't stress, it will come.

I think it says on most of these baby whisperer, supernanny etc that it takes a week od pupd/cc before they start to get the message and it gets worse before it gets better. I personally would continue with what you are doing as you have been doing it since monday and you will only confuse your lo by stopping now. Good luck,

If the most important time for him to be in his cot for you (particularly for you to get a good night's sleep) is at night time, then this is the time that you should ensure is when you spend most of you effort on getting to be happy. If that means you drop the daytime because it is becoming an 'issue' and he perhaps associates it as being time away from you, then drop it and I'm sure that it will come later.

Bedtime - when ds started in the cot I had the side off and right up to the bed - so that there was no gap, and sometimes I went to sleep with my arm in the cot - perhaps holding his hand. By the time he was 6 mo we had side on the cot and the cot moved into his own room at 6mo with no significant problems.

Hope that this is encouraging

Thanks for your thoughts. I think we're gonna let lo have his naps in his pushchair during the day which is easier all round and really work on the cot at night. Really encouraged as he slept in his cot for 2 hours last night which is a huge step forward.

SF hope it works out for you. We also found that, if ds had had sufficient sleep during the day, it was easier to get him to sleep at night - sounds wrong, but it is still true now that ds is 3+...

Dunno if this is possible but could you detach the bit of the buggy that he sleeps in and put inside the cot? When moving my 5.5m old from moses basket to cot, it was made a lot easier by her sleeping in basket in cot. After a week we removed basket and have never had any issues.

...So far!

my lo never liked his cot. slept in cot for a few hours and then our bed. he got his own bed at about 14 months and we've never looked back.

i think baby whisperer has some nice advice, but is it really feasible for a baby to only sleep in cot for naps and nighttime - ie are you never going to leave the house at naptime!

i don't mean to patronize in any way at all b/c sleep issues are hell, but maybe try not to stress on the issue too much. 6 mos is still pretty young and be glad your little one actually takes naps [some babies don't!]

MIDGE25
DS outgrew his moses basket when he was 4 months old, he's quite a long little fella. We put his moses basket in his cot and we had no probs at all he did used to sleep in his cot until he got a cold. Theres nothing to detatch on his buggy but that would of been cool.

Mimsy2000
thanks for your comments. We decided not to bother about the daytime naps as like you say i won't be at home 24/7 so having DS get used to sleeping in his cot could just create more probs. We're just gonna try get him in his cot at night. I know i'm very lucky he sleeps through in my bed and naps really well, i know i really need to relax about it

good luck, sairyfairy.

bump

Your situation sounds a lot like mine, sairyfairy. I'm curious to know how you are faring now, a few days later.