Anyone else’s baby hate their cot??

My DD2 is a tummy sleeper now too, and if I'm sleeping her in our bed without me during the day, I just put a pillow under the fitted sheet behind her and then tuck the sheet / duvet across the pillow and underneath her... seems to do the trick!

I say do whatever causes the least amount of stress but gets you the most sleep.

Oh Emmecat you always start the best threads!

Sorry to thread-jack but I'm soooooo glad to hear there are other mummas out there who have bubbas that HATE cots/bassinets and have basically never slept in them. We had a bassinet when Natalie was born but, like Clodagh, could sense being put in it, no matter how asleep she was. She hated it. Hate hate hated it. We don't even own a cot! Co-sleeping was what we always planned to do, but I never thought we would actually have to do it coz nothing else worked!

For those co-sleeping/feeding-to-sleep, I have a question! Natalie now only seems to be able to fall asleep by either boobing to sleep then sneaking away (and yes, you get very good at it! Though some days she decides not to let me sneak away...), or on one of our backs in a SSC... and then has to stay there for the duration of her nap as we can't put her down easily (not that she would let us if we could!). What's worse/better? I like that she doesn't associate boob with sleep if we wear her for her naps, but it also means you end up with a sleeping baby on your back for many hours a day! Has anyone else had a similar situation? Will Natalie ever be able to fall asleep on a bed without a boob in her mouth?! (I know she will eventually, but in the near-ish future)?!

SBM - for about six weeks the only place my DD2 would sleep was on me in a meitai, and even though I wasn't boobing her to sleep as such, this is still what she prefers to do. I don't see any harm in still boobing her to sleep, but if you want some ideas on creating new (and gentle) sleep associations try reading Sleeping Like a Baby by Pinky McKay and see how you go.

SBM...I start the best threads cos I have the worst problems lol just kidding

We had another bloody eventful night last night...this time DF adn I took turns just sitting with Clodagh while she was in her cot and we sat in the BF chair nearby. Well she didn't cry but she certainly didn't sleep either! Playtime all the way...yawn. We did then leave her but she cried and got all worked up and when we went back into the nursery, there she was, sitting up miilimetres away from her Pooh bumper (yes I know Plunket says no bumpers- this one is v secure)...and staring at him and crying...aaawww bless her. So back to bed we came where she slept, well, like a baby. Might I need to just resign myself to co-sleeping forever?? Or do you think we should keep trying the cot, even if she does eventually end up in bed with us?

HeidisMum- you speak good sense hun  I've totally thought the same thing on numerous occassions. Clodagh must be getting a bit confused sometimes! The thing with the cot is that i feel we have persisted for ages and she just continues to get wound up and hysterical over going in there at night.  Its taking us absolute hours each night to put her down anywhere now. It's crazy! I don't know why I feel so blah about co-sleeping, I like the idea, just the reality is I don't sleep as well BUT having said THAT, its more sleep than I"m getting with her in the cot...so maybe I need to change my attitude about co-sleeping and try to make our bed a bit safer for all concerned.

Bizzy wrote: will the cot fit in your room?

Yep it does...but we've only just taken it out before Xmas lol. We had her sleeping in it with the side rail down by my side of the bed....then with the rail up against the wall...but for some reason decided it was time to move her into the nursery. Well we decided to because she kept waking up when we breathed or rolled over or read a book in bed...noone was getting any sleep, she was such a delicate wee flower (hmmmm).

also i agree too with what someone said about putting them down on their tummy. eden will stay asleep mush better if i do that as opposed to her back, and then when i put her down i do the shh thing and pat her bum if she looks like stirring.

Apparently the reason they sleep 'better' on their tummies is because they sleep more deeply than they do on their backs. Alex has been a tummy sleeper since birth essentially, except for the 2 weeks we tried to insist that he HAD to sleep on his back; worst 2 weeks of our lives. LOL Luckily he was only a few weeks old at the time.

I had soo many people tell me that we were doing the wrong thing and it was tantamount to child abuse but I think it is easy to say 'well it's safer so you have to MAKE them sleep on their back' when you have a baby who is a) sleeping 'well' and/or b) who will sleep on their back easily. Me I'd rather have a baby (and parents) who got the sleep they needed than the constant over tired baby because they can't sleep for more than 20 minutes when placed on their back and wake up unhappy cause they haven't had enough sleep. Plus we mitigated all the other factors as best we could in relation to SIDS but based on the research I'd done by sleeping him WITH us and ebf him his 'risk' was fairly low anyway.

SBM......I found that Alex preferred feeding to sleep and he stopped wanting to be rocked before he stopped feeding to sleep; he even preferred to some extent feeding to sleep to sleeping with us. He stopped needing to be rocked at about 5ish months, he was out of our bed at 5.5ish months but he could be fed to sleep until he was 11 months old when he was night weaned. Then when I wanted/needed to be able to do it, he wouldn't the little devil.    Alex generally stopped needing help to fall asleep consistently (ignoring recent developments) at around 7 months.