Transitioning from hammock to cot

We have our 14 week old sleeping in a baby hammock. She is very attached to it and loves to be bounced to sleep. It works a treat and is so easy! But she is starting to get longer lengthwise and I know we will have to transition her out of it soon.

Last night she fell asleep on the boob so I popped her into her cot, she stayed asleep for an hour but then woke up crying. I tried to comfort her with shushing and patting but she got more worked up, so I ended up putting her back to sleep in her hammock.

I reckon I have a month or two up my sleeve until she is no longer able to fit the hammock. My plan is to put her in her cot each night and see if she gradually gets used to it, and then introduce day sleeping. Unfortunately though I can't get her to sleep unless by movement (car, pram or bouncing) or through feeding to sleep, which I don't do in the day. And I don't want to try CIO at this point.

So I'm after ideas on how to transition a baby from a hammock to cot, please tell me your stories?

Thanks

Edited by frankie

If baby goes to sleep in one place (ie- in your arms) then wakes up in a different, they will get a fright and wonder where they are, just like we would too!
I agree with wrapping, and you could try using rolled up towels on each side of her so that the sides are closer to her like in the hammock- the cot is probably like sleeping in the middle of an open field after being in a hammock or basinette!

thanks for the advice/tips so far. I do wrap her at night. I can't wrap her in the day as our house is too hot and she ends up a sweatball.

How do you get them to settle in the cot? Last 2 days I've tried to put her in the cot for day sleeps, I wait till she shows tired signs, lay her down and put the mobile on which keeps her happy for a bit but then she starts grizzling again, so I shush, pat etc but she eventually starts to cry and is not happy until I put her back in the hammock.

If you search for hammock you'll find a post similar to this by me a couple of years ago. I was SO worried about moving my little boy.

It ended up being forced on me - we had to spend some time in hospital and he had to go into a cot.

It ended up being fine. He took to it really quickly and, I couldn't believe it, but he started sleeping better too... longer in the day and sleeping through overnight. I think he'd become a bit uncomfy in the hammock though.

There's some good ideas above and if you do a search you'll find many more.

Good luck!

I'll steal that Mealz!

I am rocking and feeding to sleep,and then bouncing the hammock to top it off... and wondering how to get out of the hole I have dug for myself! I don't mind for the meantime because they grow up SO quickly, but at some point it's not going to be feasible any more.

Danda08 that is really interesting, as someone else I know had similar success around the same age. She found her baby wasn't sleeping well in the hammock anymore so tried the cot and it happened no probs, she reckons the baby was just ready for for it too.

Makes me wonder if I should wait a few mths as my baby is only 14.5 weeks.

But some progress to report - this morning we managed to get her to fall asleep in the cot - woo hoo! It only took 10 minutes and was painless, we patted her chest and shushed her when she grizzled. But unfortunately she only slept 15 mins and we were unable to get her resettled again. After half an hr she was ready for a feed so I did that, she fell asleep on the boob so I just let her sleep on me for 40 mins so that she had a decent sleep.

Will just keep persevering, I feel a bit more confident that we'll get there now! Thanks everyone

Kiwilaurie- I used to have to rock to sleep for every sleep and for ages at that. I decided I was over it so I used the sleep store advice and gradually reduced the amount of rocking I was doing- for a week I rocked till he was nearly asleep then put him in bed and shushed him, stroked his forehead, kept putting the dummy in etc. Then the next week I put him down sleepy, but not asleep and did the same. The week after I put him down sleepy but pretty much awake and shushed, patted etc. And now I can put him down with no rocking as long as Ive caught the tired signs right and he's not hungry or gassy. I only have to rock him if he's not feeling well now, or is overtired. So give it a go, it has really helped me and saves me a lot of time.

Hi all, thanks again for your advice and tips. Thought I would update how we are going for lurkers going through this currently, or future readers! We basically faffed around for the month since I first posted about this, and were pretty inconsistent with attempting cot sleeps (lazy parents!). However it was getting clear that the hammock was not really working for any of us. She would be fine to go to sleep during the day, with 10 - 15 mins of bouncing, but at night we were spending 2 - 3 hrs bouncing her, with wailing involved and one night I just realised that the situation was ridiculous and I needed to try the cot seriously. So 3 nights ago we put her into the cot, it was pretty awful as she screamed A LOT and we couldn't really calm her down at all, so she pretty much exhausted herself to sleep. She woke at 4.30 am and went straight back to sleep on her own after a feed. Next day I nearly lost my resolve as the night before had been so awful, but we put her into the cot for day sleeps, she did 10 mins of grizzling and a bit of screaming but not too bad. The night was a repeat of the previous but I kept on. 3rd night (last night) she fell asleep on the boob, so I popped her into the cot, she woke after 5 mins but settled herself with NO noise whatsoever and slept till 5, straight back to sleep after a feed.

So we've pretty much done it cold turkey but its only taken a few days for her to get used to it, and each sleep has gone smoother than the last.

So I wouldn't hesitate to use a hammock again, it gave me 4 months of getting her to sleep easily! I think the key is to be consistent with your transition and either do it slowly but surely, or cold turkey like we did!

yay frankie, really pleased to hear that she's got used to the cot now, it sounds like it was pretty hard work though! Go mummy on perservering .