Big Boy in his Big Boy Cot

We have been putting it off but we finally moved Baby M into his cot.

He has been getting far too big for his moses basket but our lack of courage has stopped us moving him into his cot because it means he now sleeps in his own room.

I know the guidelines are that Baby should sleep in your room until they are 6 months old but our bedroom just won't facilitate that, the room just isn't big enough. 

We picked a night (and we were going to change it but after a panic we stuck to our guns).  We chose Tuesday night last week as Baby M has swimming on a that day and we thought that might help him sleep better at night, hes usually shattered. 

We have an Angelcare monitor which not only monitors sound but movement with a sensor pad.  We put the sensor pad wires through the bottom of the cot bed as it has slats so there is no way Baby M can get to the wires.  An alarm sounds if there is no movement detected for 20 seconds.  I know ours works fine as I forgot the turn the monitor off when I picked Baby M up and the alarm went off (scaring Mr M half to death!)

We also use sleeping bags so that Baby M doesn't have any covers near him and can't put these covers over himself.

I know we had taken all safety precautions we could think of but that first night I hardly slept a wink!!  Was the monitor working?? Why is it quiet?? There's a noise - what was that noise?? He whimpered - is he ok??  There was one moment where there was a lot of rustling on the monitor and I got myself in a panic that Baby M was stuck (I have no idea what he would be stuck on though!) so I went into his room and he was just having a wriggle and throwing his arms about.

Baby M has slept absolutely fine every night!!!! He doesn't seem bothered.  Yes his has a little grumble when we put him down but he did that in his moses basket.  He also has a few grumbles through the night as well but again these happened when he was in his moses basket.  He isn't battering his hands and feet off the moses basket anymore, which is great.  He is sleeping longer into the morning, he would wake at 530-6 when in our room but the past 2 mornings he has woken up at 7-730.  Good boy!!

My sleep is improving although because I know Mr M won't hear Baby M (he's a typical man and goes deaf when he goes to sleep) I am still probably quite alert and not in a deep sleep.  We have the monitor on the sound activated setting so any noise sets the monitor off in our room.  Because Baby M is still waking for feeds in the night I want to be able to hear him stirring so I can make his bottle.

I'm so proud of him sleeping in his cot and how well he has taken to it.  He's such a star.



 

Difficulties sleeping - every baby is different

Surprisingly this post isn't about us struggling with sleep but Baby M.  We have been pretty sure for a while that he dislikes his Moses basket but after being told that he can't "hate" it we preserved with nightly upsets.

Baby M sleeps no problem in his pram but when we put him in his Moses basket he grumbles, crys, thrashes about and generally gets upset.  He also seems to have worse reflux in his Moses basket.

We have a bear which my mum got us which has a sound device in it which plays heartbeat, white noise, lullaby and sea noises.  This seemed to work for a little while however it then stopped soothing him.  We tried putting a rolled up towel under his mattress at one end to see if that would help with his startle reaction and also the reflux, again we had varying success.  We tried a dummy, we think that Baby M will probably be a thumb sucker but he isn't quite there yet so we tried a dummy.  Again some nights he keeps it in his mouth and is soothed, other nights he just wants to spit it out.

We reached the stage where, sleep deprived, we brought the pram upstairs - Baby M settled to sleep with no issues.  I have no idea why but there must be something with the Moses basket he doesn't like.  We discussed it and agreed there is no point persevering with something that upsets him.

I had a look on some mum forums and this seems to be a common problem (phew - reassurance!!!).  Other people stated they had also brought the pram upstairs for sleeping, others stated they had found co-sleeping worked. We will not be trying co-sleeping - it scares me and I wouldn't sleep from worry we would squash Baby M.  Other people put their baby in the cot.  Unfortunately this isn't an option for us as half of it is still at my parents, we are hoping that they can bring the rest to us so we can put him in his cot.

Yes I know you aren't supposed to put them in the cot until they are 6 months old but on the forum people stated they put the baby in a sleeping bag and I feel this is what we would do also to ensure he didn't kick his covers over his head (he is a wriggler!!).

I have to keep reminding myself that every baby is different and what might work for one might not work for another - we've tried lots of options with Baby M and a Moses basket just isn't for him