Re: Gabriel won't sleep alone!

lizaambler@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Lizajane) wrote in message
news:<8b9ea4b.0305241751.7b6ef067@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> Gabriel Day Evans was born to us on May 16th. He is wonderful - of
> course I think he is the most beautiful child ever born. I can tell he
> will have a sweet disposition, he smiles to himself all the time and
> though I know they are not "social smiles" I think it means something.
> The only problem is he WILL NOT sleep by himself, even if we are in
> the room. We have two bassinets, one for our bedroom and one for the
> den. Even if he is sound asleep, if I try to put him into one of his
> beds, he almost immediately wakes up and wails until someone comes to
> get him. This is after he has been fed, changed, burped, etc. I don't
> feel right just letting him cry, but I tried to yesterday and he went
> on for 5 minutes. I don't believe in "crying it out," and even if I
> did, his crying for a long period of time causes a physical response
> in my body that is uncomfortable! He sleeps well in a "family bed"
> situation, which suits me fine, but my husband is afraid that one of
> us will smother him, or that we will never be able to make the
> transition in to his crib in his own room. Also, we just need some
> time to cuddle and kiss and generally be together and it's hard to do
> if a baby is crying! I expected some of this, and don't expect to have
> much uninterupted sleep, but jeez, 15 minutes would be nice. What does
> everyone else do?

Our daughter is 6 weeks today and she slept in a bassinet for the
first couple of weeks and was doing fairly well but because I was
nursing I began to let her sleep in our bed for the next couple of
weeks because it was easier and she seemed to fall asleep quicker and
stay asleep longer.  However, I never really felt totally comfortable
with her in our bed in case one of us would roll over on her by
accident and the thought that she would never make the transition into
her crib.  So, for the past 2 weeks she has been in her crib.  This is
what I do to get her to sleep:

Bath her at around 9pm (I am convinced that this wears (sp?) her out).

Nurse her in our bed with dim lights(lying down position) until she is
sleepy.

Carefully pick her up and rock her in the rocking chair in the nursery
until she falls asleep (it takes 15 minutes for them to fall into a
deep sleep).

I continue rocking her in my arms while I walk from the rocking chair
to the crib.

As far as actually placing her in the crib it is hard for me to
describe what I do but I lean over into the crib when I put her down
and keep my arms around her for a few seconds and keep rocking her
with one hand.  Often as soon as I put her down she will awaken so
keeping one hand on her rocking her gently seems to work while I pull
the covers over her with the other hand.  If she awaken I pick her up
BEFORE she starts to cry and rock her again in the rocking chair and
go throught the same procedure.  I have found that if I let her cry
she doesn't stop and she just gets herself into a state which makes it
harder to settle her again.  I have let her cry for about 5 mins but
it doesn't work and she never falls asleep by herself.  I also don't
believe in the crying it out way.

I hope this helps a little bit and good luck with getting her to
sleep.

By the way, not to scare you or anything but a family member of mine
who happens to be a police officer was dispatched to call yesterday in
which the mother had rolled over and smothered her son.  It was a
horrific story.  If I had heard this a few weeks ago I definitely
wouldn't have let my daughter sleep with us.

Wendy J.
Katie (born 4/13/03)