#2 Your baby might consider their crib the number one enemy.
When it comes to sleep, all babies are different. That being said, all the babies in my family slept peacefully in their cribs. I assumed mine would too. Boy, was I in for a surprise!
My baby slept like a champion whenever we held him. As soon as we put him down in his crib, he woke up crying. And it would sometimes take up to an hour before we could settle him.
I learned all about safe sleep, and I was firm that my baby would never sleep in my bed. I did not want to take the risk because all the books I read mentioned the dangers of co-sleeping.
At night, we could only sleep 30 minutes at a time if we were lucky. We tried everything to get him to sleep in his crib for two weeks. Nothing would work. Between him not wanting to be put down and cluster feeding, I reached levels of exhaustion I did not know were possible.
When the nurse saw me after two weeks, she knew I could not last much longer like this. And then, she told me to try and sleep with the baby in my bed. I was shocked. She shared information about safe bed-sharing.
I was so scared, but I knew I was only a few days away from accidentally falling asleep with my baby in my arms. Something had to change. So that night, I prepped the bed to share it with my baby. And slept for two hours in a row for the first time in two weeks.
I realized I was forcing him to do something he just was not ready to: leave my side after nine months of being cozy in my tummy.
I did not want to keep doing this long-term, so I still tried to put him down in his bed every night. But I stopped insisting. And, slowly but surely, he started getting used to it.
Within one month, he stayed in his bed most of the night. And after two months, he stayed in it all night. He loves his bed now.
