only sleeping in my arms....

My 3 weeks baby is almost only sleeping in my arms...

What can I do to make him sleep in his crib ????

Sometimes I manage to do it but most of the times, he wants to be hold.

I know it's not a good habit to give... But maybe it is normal at this age ???

Any advice ??? thanks

Yes its very normal at this age he's only a newborn, give him as many cuddles as possible. Babies love to be snuggled up and wrapped up, thats how it was in the womb all warm, cosy and squashed up. Once they are put in the wide open crib often they wake, but eventually they will get used to it, just keep putting in his crib. Mabe try swaddling your baby. We have swaddled our baby since birth and still do at almost 3 months as he as colic. It instantly settles him and he feels secure. GOOD LUCK

i was just like you, he needed to fall asleep in my arms first....and if he did sleep, he would need to sleep next to me, any movement i made would wake him up.


nobody taught me:

1) that babies don't have to be sleeping ALL THE TIME

2) and if they are not sleeping BUT not fussy, it's ok to put them in the crib. who knows, they might fall asleep eventually.


so if your baby is not sleeping but not fussy, leave him be in the crib and let him get used to it. if not, he will think your body is his crib and few months down the road when he is too heavy to sleep in your arms, you'll have to resort to harsher methods like letting him cry out, etc.


since he is 3 weeks only, swaddle him during sleep time, some babies feel very insecure so a nice tight swaddle might help him to sleep in his crib.


good luck, i'm sure many more here will give you advice.

Hi Mum2004


Our newborn slept in bed with us until he was 5 weeks old. He chose not to sleep in the cot. One way we got around it as he seemed to not like the space of a cot was to leave him in his Bugaboo. But in Week 5, he just decided that the cot was not a bad place. By this time, we also had acquainted him with all his 'friends' - Teddy, Bunny & Lamb. We also fixed a colourful mobile that he could focus on. His decision to sleep in the cot was also followed by sleeping through the night. I think it helped that we didn't cuddle him too much. He was just left between the two of us. I know a mum in my mother's group who cuddled the baby most of the time or was in the Babybjorn and now at 5 months, still refuses to sleep in his cot. Just be careful of SIDS. Neither my husband or I smoke or drink or do drugs. And we have a wide queen size bed... I think it's wider than normal. So it worked out for us.


Good Luck!

Get some sort of baby sling - a Baby Bjorn is ok for out and about but not ideal at home. If the baby needs to be held to get to sleep then at this point I would accept that, but you need to find an easy way to hold him so you can either do other stuff at the same time, or not worry about dropping him (I used to be scared I would fall asleep holding the baby). Once he's asleep in a carrier then you can probably lay him down in his cot and he should stay asleep. 3 weeks is still very very young, so he probably just needs to be held.


Something like a ring sling or a pouch-type carrier or a wrap (like the Moby wrap) would be good, I think (Google them if you're not sure what I'm talking about). You can buy the first and last type from www.Nappypooh.com (in HK) or you can buy all the other kinds on the internet, but may need to wait a while for shipping. If you want something very quick you can pop to your nearest fabric shop and buy around 3 yards of any fabric and wrap it round you (you need to look around for an Indonesian helper to see what I mean) and pop the baby in the cloth. You'll still want to support the baby and not drink anything hot while you're holding him, but really it helps. My baby went to sleep instantly as soon as I put him like this, then it didn't matter so much that he wasn't in his bed as I could still internet/watch tv/walk around outside.

Hi,

My son only slept next to me for the first few weeks. I was terribly worried about starting a bad habit as my daughter never slept in our bed. But I decided to just enjoy having him so close and giving him lots of cuddles. When he was a few weeks old he decided to sleep in his cot and he has never looked back since.

My advice would be not to worry about it. I think some babies just need this closeness in the beginning and in retrospect I have to say that it was very nice for me too.

Good luck!

i agree with wheelymate, if he is not fussy and not crying, try getting him used to the crib. i used to rock my baby to sleep every time, it become so bad that i had to resort to control crying when he was 8 month old. dont make the same mistake that i made. get him used to the cot, but dont compromise your cuddles and hugs.