Transitioning 2 Month Old from Bassinet to Crib
There are SO many articles out there about sleep training babies and transitioning them into their own room, but no 2 babies are alike. When Kathryn was born we kept her in our room in a bassinet. She has always been a good sleeper which is one of the reasons she lost so much weight the first few days. She was tough to wake up and feed from the beginning. There was also about a week where she would only sleep in my arms or on my chest. I spent many nights on the couch so Brad could sleep since he had to work.
1. Get a Sound Machine
In order to transition her from my arms/chest sleeping I would wait until she was in a deeper sleep and then put her in her bassinet. She typically would stay there the rest of the night. One of our saving graces to keep her asleep was her sound machine. We registered for this one from Target so we could travel with it. We were concerned about the battery life on it, but it's been going strong for 2 months now with continued use. What I love about this sound machine, not just that we can travel with it, but it has a variety of sounds to choose from as well as a timer and volume buttons. The downside to this sound machine is the very loud clicking sound the buttons make when you press them, but that doesn't seem to bother her very much. Once she started sleeping through the night with the occasional feeding in the middle of the night we decided to start putting her in the nursery. I was also about to go back to work and needed to make sure I was sleeping. Keep in mind that she was 7 weeks old when we decided to do this. Since she is a larger child she was able to eat enough to go longer between feedings at night.
2. Wait for a Weekend
I did so much reading to try and find the best methods to try and get her to sleep. Everyone had different ideas, but most agreed that you cannot sleep train a child less than 6 months old. That seemed ridiculous to me. Kathryn was a noisy sleeper, I couldn't imagine having a baby in our room for 6 months. I decided to transition her anyway. There's no real evidence that says you can't or shouldn't. So, we did. However, we did choose to start her transition when Brad had a 3 day weekend and I was still on maternity leave. This way, if she didn't sleep well, we would be able to take naps during the day.
3. Familiarize Baby with Nursery
One of the main points I liked from all of the articles I read talked about familiarizing the baby with their room. If they have never been in that room before then they are less likely to be comfortable enough to sleep in it. I always changed her in the nursery and spent the middle of the night feedings in there. If she was fussy I would rock her in her glider until she either fell asleep or calmed down. For Christmas we got her a kick and play piano we tied to inside of her crib. We spent many times playing her piano in her crib. After awhile we were able to put her in the crib with her piano and get chores done. Tummy time with her floor mat and reading were also fun activities we shared in her nursery. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in her nursery and made sure most of it was positive so she enjoyed being in there.
4. Leave Your Shirt and Don't Leave Room Immediately
Since she was still so young I wanted to keep nursing her to sleep. Like I said before, she was a good sleeper so this part wasn't hard. When she was done eating and asleep I moved her to her crib and turn on her sound machine. Another thing I read suggested not just leaving the room as soon as you place them in the crib. They are used to sleeping with you close by. If she started to wake up when we laid her down we used her pacifier to help soothe her back to sleep. Brad also would gently bounce the mattress to help her "rock" to sleep. Since she was used to having my smell around her all the time I left whatever shirt I wore that day on the edge of the crib too. This way she had my smell to help keep her calm too.
5. Be Patient
For the first week she would wake up in the middle of the night for one feeding. She wasn't 100% comfortable in her room so wasn't able to soothe herself back to sleep yet. I would go in to feed her and tried to put her back in her crib, but the first 2 nights she wouldn't go back to sleep. So, we moved her back into her bassinet after the middle of the night feeding. She always fell right back to sleep in her bassinet.
6. Create a Bedtime Routine
After a few days we decided to work on a bed time routine to help with the transition. This would also help me get to bed at a reasonable time to get enough sleep for work. At 8:30pm we go upstairs, bathe her if she needs it, change her clothes (even if she was just changed) and diaper, read her a book, nurse, and put her to bed. Our hope is that this will not only help her get on a schedule now, but continue to help keep her on a schedule as she gets older. With the next weekend we decided to try her all night in her crib. Again, she woke up once and I just made sure she was all the way asleep before putting her back in her crib. This time it worked great! A few more days of one feeding a night resulted in her first night in her crib without waking up.
7. Stick with your Routine
It's been about 4 weeks now of her in the crib and she has slept through the entire night the past 2 weeks. After 3 weeks of leaving my shirt on her crib I stopped and she still falls asleep and stays asleep in her crib. Now we don't have to bounce the mattress, most nights she doesn't need her pacifier, and we don't stay in the room as long. We only stay in the room long enough to make sure she doesn't become fussy, even if she is still wiggling a bit she is able to soothe herself back to sleep now. She still will periodically wake up in the middle of the night (I can hear it on the monitor talking to her mobile), but will suck her fist and fall back to sleep.
This routine has made our evenings so much easier. We're able to either finish a movie, watch a TV show uninterrupted, or take a shower, but during the work week most of the time we get ready for bed and go to sleep ourselves. In a few weeks we plan to start separating her final feeding and bedtime a little so she can learn to put herself to sleep. We plan to go upstairs still at 8:30pm, feed her first, then bath if needed, change clothes and diaper, and put in bed.
What tricks did you use to help your baby transition to their own room? Did you have any different results than we did?