There’s this commercial, I think it’s one of those shmoopy Johnson & Johnson “Anything for Baby” ads, where a woman is roused from her comfy bed in the dead of night by her blatting infant (the husband, of course, merely rolls to one side, snores heavily, and lets loose a gunshot-loud fart. I mean, I’m assuming that’s what he does). She comes into the nursery yawning with a look on her face like “Motherfuckerrrrrrrrrr”, but as soon as she picks up her baby she’s all, oh, who’s a widgey widdle pookums? YOU are! And during the diaper change she busts out with this retrained I-have-makeup-on-at-3-AM TV-version of an OM NOM NOM NOM on the baby’s belly. I think the tagline was something like “Midnight Snack.”

I saw that ad during my last pregnancy and I frankly found the whole thing obnoxious, because shut up, anything for baby. Oh, so it’s not enough that my sleep is ruined by the leg restlessness and heartburn and constant peeing and hemorrhoids the size of Concord grapes erupting forth from my poor, horrified rear end, I get to look forward to months of midnight poop-smeared awakenings and I’m not even allowed to resent it.

Now that it’s been a good six months and counting of being woken up every single night, I feel like I’m living that damn ad. Every night, somewhere in the wee hours between 2 and 5, Dylan starts squawking, and without even thinking I get up and trudge into his room. I never lie there thinking, well, THIS is bullshit; my legs automatically swing out from under the covers and I’m down the hall before my eyes are even halfway open (I assume this is some deep seated self-preservation tactic, drawn forth from some ancient reptilian corner of my brain to keep me from just up and smothering the child when he interrupts that shamefully hot cougar-vampire dream I was having about Edward Cullen).

Once I’m in there and sitting in the rocking chair with the lights dimmed and Dylan nestled in the crook of my left arm like a pudgy, feetie-pajama’d otter, contentedly taking deep pulls off his bottle, I rest my lips on the the top of his head and smell the summer-grass aroma of his hair. And then, when I change his diaper, I do in fact find myself unable to keep from smooching his puffed-out belly while his legs bicycle furiously and he makes that goofy, pleased “BMMMMM” sound with his mouth at me.

The whole process is fairly painless and quick: I feed him, change him (I’ve tried to skip the changing step but have found that it’s not worth the potential disastrous results), and I put him back down. He’s usually wide awake at that point, but for some glorious, mysterious reason he doesn’t complain. Occasionally I hear him sort of babbling to himself after I go back to bed, but for the most part he stays quiet and content until he falls back to sleep on his own — a far cry from the furious I WILL BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSES AND SHIT ON YOUR TOOTHBRUSHES attitude he displays when I put him down for his daytime naps.

So he isn’t sleeping through the night (this hasn’t changed since he started solids, and JB is still giving him a bottle around 11-11:30 whether he wakes up on his own or not), but it’s not a major inconvenience. Anything for baby, right? (Barf.) The real problem is that that’s what his routine is like if we put him down in the swing. If we put him in the crib, all bets are off: he wakes up after only an hour or two, he howls like a banshee when he gets put back down.

He’s not yet at the weight limit for the swing but he’s able to partially sit up in the damn thing (we strap him in, but that only contains his lower half) and then gets all whomperjawed, lying off to one side and grousing angrily. So clearly the swing’s days are numbered. But the swing means sleep! The crib means constantly getting up, and having to deploy long drawn out comfort methods to get him back down! My anything for baby capacity begins running real low after I’ve been up at 1, 2:30, and 4 AM, you know what I mean?

Anyway, I’m wondering if any of you inadvertently caused a Swing Addiction or similar with your child, and how you got over it with a minimum of suck-assedness?

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Eleanor Q.
15 years ago

We have inadvertently caused a boob pacifier/bouncing on the yoga ball addiction. We are trying to break it but some nights nothing other than me, bounicing on the ball while nursing will do. It sucks, a lot, and what can I say he’s our first kid. Let’s hope we can avoid it with the next one.

Lindsay
15 years ago

We are right there with you. Granted my son is only four months, but he’s a 16-pound four monther, and so I know our days are limited.

Unlike Dylan, my son will sleep in the swing all night (9-10 hours) with nary a peep, and has done so since approximately 6 weeks (I’ll duck while you throw something at my head). But, like you, all bets are off when he is sleeping in anything other than the swing. It is to the point that last weekend our Fisher Price Papasan Swing (i.e. my diety) died (we used it incessently with number one as well so this was to be expected) and I did what any respectable mom would do–I marched my ass out to Target and bought another one.

Fuck trying to force change when you’ve got a good thing going.

But, on the other hand, I’m totally fucked when we head out to Denver for vacation next weekend. I actually contemplated buying a FP Papasan Swing out there off of Craigslist and then donating it to a womens shelter or something . . . cause that would be the chairitable thing to do, no?

Erica
15 years ago

For six weeks or so, my daughter would only sleep in her swing. I did not care one tiny bit. Sleep is sleep, right?

When she got to be too big/squirmy for the swing, we cut out cold-turkey and went for the dreaded “cry-it-out” method of crib sleeping. Once she was down for the night in her crib, she didn’t get back out for ANYTHING. (She was night-weaned.) We comforted her, but never picked her up and got her out. Three days later and she was a crib sleeper.

Not that it’ll work that way for you, or anything. I just wanted to let you know that we, too, created a swing-sleeping monster it and wasn’t the end of the world or anything.

AndreAnna
15 years ago

My first spawn was a swing addict. She had such bad reflux that if someone told me to dance around in a tutu while singing Sweet Home Alabama and she’d sleep, I would have done it.

The swing and swaddling saved my sanity. Around 5-6 months, we put her in her crib and I wish I had some magic advice but all I remember is: SONOFABITCHIHAVETOGETUPAGAINIMSOFUCKINGTIREDWHYWONTTHISKID SLEEP.

It took about two weeks of multiple wakings (but she wasn’t eating in the middle of the night then), but each night got a little better and eventually, she stayed put. Within weeks, she looked forward to her crib, fell asleep on her own and stayed for 12 hours.

So, it’s probably going to be sucky regardless. But the suck does end.

Last night was her first night in a big girl bed and she’s 2 1/2.

Casey
15 years ago

My 20 month old son was so addicted to the swing that we called it “Daddy #1” and my husband was “Daddy #2”. He spent his first 5 months taking every single nap in it. He was a big (fat) kid (almost 18lbs) at his 4 month appointment and he probably shouldn’t have been in the swing since the whole thing shook and threatened to tip when he was in it. He also got a pretty bad flat spot from always zonking out with his head turned to the same way. I know, parents of the year over here. It got him through nap time though and that saved our sanity. He did sleep in his crib at night though. Once we moved him to his crib for naps, he turned into a 30 minute napper (I really hope this doesn’t happen to you). It went on for a good 6 months and made me want to shoot myself.

The thing that sucked ass the most with getting him to sleep through the night was the pacifier. He didn’t show interest in it early on and our dumb asses forced it on him until he was finally hooked. He would fall asleep with it in his mouth, go into a deep sleep and it would fall out, go into a light sleep and wake up and scream for it. Every f’ing 45 minutes. It got so bad that we took turns sleeping on the boppy on the floor in his room to plug him when he started screaming. Once we went cold turkey on the binky (at 7 months), we had 2 nights of CIO hell and then he slept through the night and has never looked back.

Our four month old would never nap in the swing and we didn’t push it so I guess we lucked out. She hardly naps in her room either but having a screaming toddler running down the hallway outside her room doesn’t help. She does sleep from 7PM to 8AM (with an 11PM bottle), something which we take no credit for and are sure will come to an end any day now so I can’t complain about her lack of a nap schedule.

Jen
Jen
15 years ago

My little guy hates the swing, which is bad too in a way because I can’t put him down to get anything done without him grousing and screaming.

I do have some friends though who ended up with their little guy addicted to sleeping in the carrier. They phased him out of that by putting the carrier in the crib for a little bit and then transitioning him out of it after a week. If I remember right Dylan isn’t hooked with sleeping with the swing on, so maybe you could move the swing seat to the crib for a transitional period?

Of course, I’m one to talk. At four months, Orion still sleeps in the PNP in my room until his night waking and then in our bed for the rest of the night. Is it because I’m a crunchy co-sleeper? No. I’d love to have him in his crib across the house. It’s because I’m too lazy to walk his ass back to the other side of the room once he’s fallen asleep on the bottle.

Jess
15 years ago

So been there (both with cougar Edward dreams and swing mess). Our first was a swing addict. Second one HATED it. It was about six months in when we decided that it was time for number one to go the crib permanently. We’re Ferber people and I know that there are many people who ascribe to this technique and many who very much do not. With us it was the only thing that finally worked with the swing transition. Hooboy were the first two days hell, but after that it really wasn’t that bad. We got her ready for bed with her usual routine and then put her down awake in her crib. Hellfire fury and damnation was there screaming. But it had to happen. We’d check on her often of course (same routine for naps) but she stayed in the crib. And at night we would try to calm her as much as possible but didn’t sway from our original plan. Again, the first two days BLEW HARD. But she soon forgot that she needed the swing and into the closet it went. We brought it out for baby number two, who would rather have slept on glass shards, and in the basement it has stayed. Number one still LOVES to climb in (she’s two) and swing away, but weaning her wasn’t easy. My heart is with you. And Edward.

JudithNYC
JudithNYC
15 years ago

My kids did not get addicted to the swing since I had twins and only one swing (plus 35 years ago the model I had was a piece of crap and did not suggest itself to leaving a baby sleepin in it all night).

The boys did want to be held and played with during the night but since I needed to be able to keep my sanity (what little I had) one day I just decided to stay in bed and let them cry. I made sure they were full and their bottoms were dry. It took about three nights of them crying in their cribs and me crying in my room, but it worked. I regret some things I did (yelling when they were older, etc) but I do not regret letting them cry themselves to sleep for those few nights.

Hope you can find a way that’s right for you and your son.

Saturn
15 years ago

Okay, first of all…

“…that shamefully hot cougar-vampire dream I was having about Edward Cullen).”

Hee! If I didn’t love you before, I certainly do now. I have that dream pretty much every night. :)

Now, back to the question.

Kidlet and I were sharing a room, after I moved back in with my parents after my separation/divorce, from the time she was 15 months until she was 2 and a half. More often than not, she ended up getting in bed with me at some point, because she’d wake up, see me sleeping 5 feet away, and why wouldn’t she want to sleep with Mommy?

We’ve been on our own for over a year now, she and I, but it still took probably 8 months to break her of wanting to sleep with me every night. Mostly, she just grew out of it, which is what I suspect will happen with your situation. Maybe he’ll realize that the swing’s just uncomfortable since he’s gotten bigger and not like it anymore? Or maybe you can start a different sort of bedtime routine with him, to “reset” him?

I’m sorry that’s not much help. :/ But I do wish you lots of luck; getting back to dreaming about Edward is definitely a lofty, important goal/ :)

Giselle
Giselle
15 years ago

I don’t have a baby so I have no advice; however I can relate to the Edward dream. I love him.

kristylynne
kristylynne
15 years ago

Damn it, this reminded me of the sucky part of having a baby. And here I was, wanting another one. My son didn’t sleep through the night until he was one. Woke up every three hours for a YEAR. I was a ZOMBIE. I read every book I could find and tried everything, and came to the conclusion that the kid was not going to sleep through until he was good and ready. And one day, he just was.

We didn’t have the swing addiction, but here’s a question: is the swing ON, all night long? If so, maybe he’s a motion junkie. Maybe you could try putting him in there, turning it on, then turning it off after gradually decreasing periods of time, until he’s going to sleep in the swing while it’s still. Then once he’s used to that, put him in the crib. Just a thought.

Beth
15 years ago

I had a child who could not close his eyes for so much as a second without being tightly swaddled. Then he started sleeping for shit at about 5 months, so I figured hey, as long as nobody around here is sleeping, may as well go cold turkey on the miracle blanket. It sucked, but now it is better.

Andrea
Andrea
15 years ago

ugh! Hated this transition w/my son. We just slowly started turning the swing speed down until he could sleep in it w/out motion around 6 months or so. Then we added a sleep positioner to his crib – I think the ‘snugged in’ feeling he got from the swing was what he liked, and the positioner had a similar effect. We’d still have to rock him completely before putting him down in it to avoid screaming hysterics. And finally after 8 months, we let him cry it out when going down. Now, he’s a champion sleeper – has been ever since.

Also, I’m sure you’re aware of ‘Midnight Sun’ on Stephenie Meyer’s website. But, just in case: http://stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html
ENJOY!

Becky
Becky
15 years ago

We had the Baby Papasan addiction….after we moved he was just so exhausted one night that we said what the hell let’s try the crib…and he sacked out….we were truly lucky.

Lesley
Lesley
15 years ago

I seem to recall swinging cribs when I was a kid…do these not exist anymore? (they manually rocked. i.e. kid moves, cradle rocks).

Janet Powell
Janet Powell
15 years ago

I would swear my third child was a vampire. May or may not snooze during the day, up trying to flit around the house at night. I got this thing:
http://www.sleeptightinfantsoother.com/

I attached it to the bottom springs of the crib and turned it on. It emulates the feel and sound of an old Buick going 60 mph. It worked. I should buy stock in that company, but I think its privately owned by some very now wealthy people

Janet, Miami

Paula
Paula
15 years ago

We just got our little one (5 months old) broke from the swing – she didn’t want anything but that and being held – period. My pediatrician suggested trying her afternoon nap time with a full belly, clean pants, and burped. Put her in her crib and let her work it out – I would go up and rub her back, sweet-talk her then leave every 20 minutes. It took a week, but it is done and I feel so much better. Now if I could just get her to sleep through the night. Oy vey.

Stacey
15 years ago

Well, SUCK! We are in the exact same boat as you except my daughter is 2months younger than Dylan. So I’m appreciating the helpful comments. If we figure out anything that works I’ll let you know. Until then, I’m going to go rip my dry, over-tired eye balls out!

Melissa
Melissa
15 years ago

No advice but can relate. My son “sleeps” in the crib but is up 3-4 times a night. He is almost 4 mos and I’m hoping the wakings just magically stop somehow. :)

Kelly
Kelly
15 years ago

Yikes. Been there, done that. My son (who is now 10 months old) was quite content to sleep in his swing, but not the crib. Hell no. What worked for us (yes, it was a bit of work) was to force him to do the nap in the crib during the day and then once that was kinda/sorta working then I’d put him in the crib at night. I’d keep at it during the night until I couldn’t handle it anymore and then I’d put him in the swing so we could all get some damn sleep already. It took awhile, but he’s sleeping 9-10 hours a night in his crib these days. Then I feed him and put him down again for a few more hours. Sweet relief.

Sundry
Sundry
15 years ago

He sleeps with the motor *off*, so I think it’s a snugged-in thing, like you mentioned Andrea — but he doesn’t seem to tolerate being swaddled anymore. But oooh, sleep positioner, there’s an idea!

I don’t know what I love more, getting ideas from you guys, or just knowing I’m not the only one in [insert whateverthehell annoying situation here]. Yay, thank you!

Annie
Annie
15 years ago

Um, our almost 17 mo. old still sleeps in her Fisher-Price papasan swing. (Hides face shamefully.) We are lucky she is so petite. She had really, really awful reflux, and we did not sleep for a year straight. It was BAD. Anyway, we are in the same boat. As we speak, she is screaming her head off, and my hubby just went in to kiss and reassure her. He is INSISTING on doing this Ferber thing, and even though my heart hurts, I am going along with it because does ANYONE ELSE HAVE A BETTER IDEA?? Much sympathy for you!

Nic
Nic
15 years ago

My kid was dependent on her car seat to sleep in. Started at 1 wk old with a bad URI where her nasal congestion prevented her from being able to nurse, and when she realized the car seat was soooooo much cozier than her big cold crib she never looked back. We were desperate for any sleep we could get, so it was ok. Until we decided it reached its crazy limits. so, at 7 months we went cold turkey, cry it out (after we had gotten her naps converted to crib only). she cried for 12 min the first night, and 7 min the next, and NONE !! the next. We would not go in for anything short of bodily harm (and did not go in, ever). She did use a pacifier, and I think that helped her self soothe. My younger daughter never slept anywhere but the crib, so we are ok there (learned the hard way). Good luck.

Courtney
Courtney
15 years ago

I wish I had some great advice to share but considering my son would wake up every two hours till he was 18 months, I am the last person to ask. He finally just slept through the night, one night I’m up every two hours and then *poof* he was sleeping through the night. It has been the most blissful month because I am no longer “ZOMBIE MOMMY”!

Good luck! :)

lisa
15 years ago

We finally did the Ferber thing with our son at almost 7 months, and like everyone said it took two nights of hell and then he was a great sleeper, and still is at 4 years old. (LOVE to my hubby who did the Ferbering while I slept downstairs with the iPod in my ears because I couldn’t do it. Fast forward to our daughter, who is 5 months old – she was up to nurse every couple hours until I was losing my mind. About a month ago my husband got up with her through the night while I slept and she only two TWO ounces over night, so we decided to move totally to the bottle at night, giving her 2 ounces, then gradually went to 1 ounce, then just the pacifier and Holy God it worked. Without crying. I consider this my free pass after 7 months of hell with my firstborn…

If its the snuggled in feeling that he likes, maybe you could use the boppy in the crib? I know all the CYA Don’t Sue Us stuff says “NO SLEEPING IN THE BOPPY!!!” but my son loved it for naps when he first moved to the crib, so maybe its worth a shot!

Good luck. I’ve been there, and it is no fun.

Kristi
15 years ago

You have some excellent advice here. I just wanted to offer my support and solidarity during the NIGHTS OF POTENTIAL SUCK leading up to the Falling Asleep in Crib.

Amy
Amy
15 years ago

We have the same issue with the swing – he (2 months) refuses to sleep on a flat surface. But we were able to transition him seamlessly to the Fisher Price Soothing Motions Glider. It’s almost as big as a bassinet, so plenty of room, but it’s soft and cushy and provides just enough “hug.” And it moves relatively quietly back and forth to sooth him to sleep if he needs it. Best of all, it’s a lot easier to move from room to room than the swing.

H
H
15 years ago

We had sleep issues with our daughter — different situation so I have no advice for you — but I sympathize with you and wish you the best. It looks like you have some promising suggestions here.

ehiwv
15 years ago

my baby slept in the swing for the first 4 months and i was terrified that she would be doomed to a life of sleeping in a hammock, which is fine if you live on gilligan’s island but not so much for a life in the suburbs. eventually we moved her to the pack n’ play for the naps, and later for night time where we endured a few hellish nights of crying-it-out, and then we slowly introduced her to the crib. she’s a year old now and she sleeps like a champ. (knock knock knock on every wooden surface around me)

Stinky Horowitz
Stinky Horowitz
15 years ago

When I got too big to be rocked to sleep every night, my parents went to the CIO method. Apparently I was so loud they had to sit outside the house and smoke until I was asleep, and my mom doesn’t smoke. It took three days, but I figured it out. My mom loves to tell that story. I’m noticing the three-day-suck trend in the comments, too.

JMH
JMH
15 years ago

“when he interrupts that shamefully hot cougar-vampire dream I was having about Edward Cullen”…..

I have those cougar-vampire dreams too :) I LOVE Edward!!

No help with the sleep dept. though. Both of my kids were (and still are) good sleepers. Please feel free to hate me now :)

Ashlea
15 years ago

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Amanda
15 years ago

My daughter wasn’t hooked on her swing, but she was hooked on her carseat instead. She slept in that thing far better than her crib – same as you, she’d be awake in a minute if we put her down in the crib. I think it was the restrictive nature of the carseat that she liked. After five months (!!), we finally started transitioning her into her crib…we’d put her in until she’d wake up, then back into the carseat…we did this for a while until finally she could sleep through in the crib. Good luck!

ikate
ikate
15 years ago

Maggie was an awful sleeper and was not night weaned until about 11 months so I know the zombie-mama feeling well. After we read the “Happiest Baby on the Block” she got addicted to the white noise and now at nearly 2 we still use it. She also liked to be swaddled until about 7 months.

A few weeks after weaning we did a half-hearted Ferber method which involved exactly 3 nights of suckage. I call it half-hearted because we weren’t so much hardcore Ferber (we never read the book) as we were too exhausted to care at that point. After that she went to sleep pretty well and we are going on a year of solid 12-hour nights.

Joanne
15 years ago

It sucks so hard that you can make a bad habit in approximately three seconds, but it takes a little longer to make a good habit. It sounds like maybe you are going to just have to put him in his crib, the longest it could suck is a few nights. It’s great that he can settle himself down from such an awake state, I bet you’ll be surprised at how easily he takes to it, after the initial complaining. My three year old son had a *very* difficult infancy and I always think if we could get him to sleep without swaddling and rocking him to sleep (our own personal addiction) anyone can. Also, I’m just saying, but if my baby were bottle fed, you can bet I’d be kicking the hell out of her father to get up sometimes to feed her. The hell?

lisa
lisa
15 years ago

My son was totally a swing addict as soon as he was big enough for it. The funny thing was, he wasn’t all that interested in it while he was awake & alert. But he napped like a champ in it. He slept overnight in his crib, woke up around 5 or 6 in the morning & was back in that swing before 8. He would sleep for 3 hours at a shot in it. It also helped a lot during the evening witching hour.

And I knew that it would be a problem when he hit the weight limit. But after a couple of screaming napless days, I realized something…he had no idea what to do in his crib when it was light out. He was only familiar with it when it was dark out. So I started doing the entire bedtime schtick for naps (except for the bath)…clean diaper, swaddle, books, music, dim light, etc. It took a while, but he figured out that the crib was for sleeping, no matter what time it was. He’s 2.5 & I still do when we’re at home. (Daycare has their own routine, which seems to be working.)

Don’t forget, there’s a reason that Fisher Price doesn’t make swings for toddlers (or maybe it just hasn’t occurred to them?) It will work out somehow.

Good luck!

Joanne
15 years ago

Posting shortly after myself to say that perhaps I am getting out my own frustrations on my sleeping husband on your poor husband. I know that you said he takes the 11:00 feeding but maybe if you move Dylan to the crib you could drop that feeding (or not wake him up for it) and take turns getting up with him. Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so rotten, I got cut off!

sweetney
15 years ago

I love you, you know I do, but I’m sorry, I stopped reading this post at “… that shamefully hot cougar-vampire dream I was having about Edward Cullen.” (OMFG, I KNOW!) (OM NOM NOM NOM.)

the goddess anna
the goddess anna
15 years ago

Okay, another nominee for Parent of the Year here. My boys are three, and still sleep in their crib. Together. We insisted that they were bedded together in the NICU (we heard it was good for twins), and they shared a crib out of convience. About 15 months ago, we tried splitting them up into two separate cribs. No go. So now, they have no room in their crib, but they won’t sleep with the side removed (toddler day bed). Splitting them up causes them to wake up and sneak back together.

I’m hoping soon that they get sick of being toddler sardines, and we can move them into a bed, but I have no idea when they’ll want to split up. Before they get married, I hope. They’re not even identical! Also, they were addicted to their swings, to the point that they broke them from over-use (and being too big). I toughed it out, because I had to. I feel for ya though!

sdg
sdg
15 years ago

I think I did what a lot of parents do, and I gave them the pacifier addiction. I have two sons, and both used the pacifier, only each preferred a different version of it, one the dental/oral shaped fixture, the other the longer bottle-nipple shaped fixture. It’s been a *long*time however since my sons were that little, and it’s tough to remember the time. It was stressful for me, and usually that induces the memory to permanently add something to the catalogue. However not so in this case. I do know that we used a swing I was still married, but a lot of the time, I just rocked them. We had bought a rocking chair, and I would sit and rock and sing them to sleep. Which may be the reason my ex had so much trouble with them when I left. :D Used to Dad rocking them to sleep, and now… not there anymore. Didnt break them of it until much later on however, and really it just took a different addiction. Which turned out to be still time with them at bedtime. I think for tiny ones, the key is, wear them out, then put them down. With slightly older ones, it’s more of, entertain until I am sleepy enough to stay asleep. GL!

bessie.viola
15 years ago

I think that you should just go ahead and let him grow out of it. Like you said, it seems to be a “snugged in” thing – we went through the same thing with Madeline. She slept in her carseat until she was 4 months old, and then one night she woke herself up over and over with the squirming and uncomfortable-ness.

The next night, we put her in the crib. She woke a few times, but just for pats/reassurance we were still there (honestly, I don’t even know if we *should* have gone in because she was barely mewing in there).

Anyway – to close this book – she now sleeps through the night, from about 9pm until 7am. We still have to get up occassionally, but only for pats & binky re-insertion.

However he gets sleep is fine… you’re probably not going to be taking the swing off to college, right? ;)

telegirl
telegirl
15 years ago

No swing addiction, we were too busy getting our little guy hooked on sleeping in bed with us. Because we loved having him near us. And, this was after we transitioned him out once successfully. We truly are stupid.

Kris
Kris
15 years ago

Mine had a swing addiction too but like the other gals said, sleep is sleep no matter what it takes!!

P.S. Totally feeling ya on the Edward Cullen dreams. yum!

Cassie
15 years ago

“Cougar-vampire dream about Edward Cullen” — HA! So the books sucked you in too.

We were having the same problem with our son, who’s 3 months. He was sleeping awesome in the swing, but the crib — not so much.

We did the Ferber Method for baby sleep. We’d lay him down in the crib wide awake, let him cry the suggested amounts of time — blah blah blah, you can read all about it on the Internet. Anyway, after a few nights of him crying as soon as he was laid down, a few nights of us going in at the suggested times to soothe him without picking him up, he suddenly stopped crying. And put himself to sleep. Now he sleeps from 8:00 to 4:00, eats, then sleeps again until 7:30.

He’s happy, we’re happy. It is bliss.

JennB
15 years ago

We got spoiled with our 3-1/2 year old who slept through the night at 10 weeks. Our 12 week old is still in bed with us, he’s 17-1/2 lbs, and refuses to sleep. I plan on Ferberizing SOON (when I can read the book with my spare time – ha!)

Also: I love Edward Cullen. I don’t approve of the casting choice for the movie, but hopefully his acting will be better than his looks. Not nearly hot enough.

erin
15 years ago

Once my oldest outgrew the swing I made her sleep in her crib. And she screamed for the longest, most agonizing 5 minutes of my LIFE. And promptly slept until 6am. I slept not a wink, but she was nice and well-rested. Go figure.

Hue
Hue
15 years ago

We started off by making her sleep in the swing while it was turned off. Then we moved her to the crib (swaddled). Then we stopped the swaddle and put her on her belly in the crib. Each transition was fairly painless. She’s almost 6 months now and sleeps through to 4AM when she insists on being nursed.

Briana
15 years ago

We have been in the same situation for a while now. My son, Ryan, is 8 months old and sleeping in the swing right now for a nap. The big problem is that now he likes to sleep on his side, causing the whole thing to be EVEN MORE UNSTABLE than it is with his near-the-limit body in it.
At night, he goes down in the crib around 9, but ALWAYS gets up at 1:30 and 3:30 and 5 or 6. Sometimes we have to put him in the swing to get him back to sleep.
We did Cry it out twice last week, and ever since then he has been AMAZING at going to bed. Not.one.peep. (until 1:30-then bottle required)
I use a blanket in his bed b/c he kept doing this weird double leg lift to show his displeasure at being laid down. I sort of modified the swaddle b/c he doesn’t like the arms to be clamped down. He’s “trained” to love on a soft bunny toy that I rubbed all over my pre-shower dirty chest so it would smell like Mommy. He snuggles in with it too. (we’ve had issues with him wanting to sleep in our bed/us being to lazy to put him back–this is usually after the 5 AM wake up, but one DAMN issue at M-fing time!) We also plug in a pacifier. I rock his body in the crib using my hand on his tummy for a few minutes until he closes his eyes or looks away from mine for a second. Then I SLOWLY remove my hand (like they do at the end of your massage, so you THINK someone is still touching you, even when they are done) and get out of his room before he realizes I am gone.
I know this is long, but email me and I will tell you more of what works/what doesn’t if you still want more…(with 46 other posts, maybe not?)

sara
15 years ago

they have vibrating beds for baby (anything for baby right?) at baby’s r us, maybe that would work???

sara
15 years ago

by beds I mean crib matresses