5 mo old won't sleep in crib

[Charlene.b]

We are desperately trying to get our 5 mo old to sleep in his crib.  At night he sleeps in a co-sleeper next to our bed.  In the day for naps, we have only been able to get him to sleep in his car seat attached to a stroller or in my bed with me.  He's supposed to go to day care in about 3 weeks, so we're getting desperate.

The issue isn't that he cries, it's that he wakes almost immediately and starts playing.  We did the whole thing of putting a mobile in to make it a happy place, but it seems to have backfired on us.  I think the longest we've gotten him to sleep in there was 15 min and that was after a walk in the stroller and then transferring him. 

Any suggestions would be more than welcome!  Thanks so much in advance!

(oh - we have him on a 4 hour easy with the 3rd nap being a short one)

[anna*]

Have you got it realy erally dark in the room? If it's dark enough he'll have trouble playing a mobile can actually be really overstimulating so I'd probably save that for the beginning of his A time, rather than at sleep time. How long is he awake between naps?

[Charlene.b]

Have you got it realy erally dark in the room? If it's dark enough he'll have trouble playing a mobile can actually be really overstimulating so I'd probably save that for the beginning of his A time, rather than at sleep time. How long is he awake between naps?

We removed the mobile.  We close the blinds and got curtains too, but honestly it's still not super dark in there.  We play classical lullabies on low, so he'll get used to it because that's what the day cares use for their nap time.  I don't even know what he was playing with this time.  We just hear him laughing and shrieking like he's playing.  We tried walking him to sleep again once, but it took a good 45 min to get him back to sleep.  We tried just leaving him there and eventually he got bored and started crying.

He's awake 2 hrs, maybe a little bit more, between naps.  I make it a point to rock with him and read and things to wind him down before his nap times too.

[anna*]

He's probably ready for a touch more A time. At 5 months old many can handle closer to 2.5hrs. Also remember that to a little baby, even a picture book can be super stimulating. You could just talk to him so he hears your voice but no bright pictures etc. And if you can get it really dark in there, I bet that will help (also for future too, light in the bedroom can really mess with naps and also with early mornings).

[Charlene.b]

He's probably ready for a touch more A time. At 5 months old many can handle closer to 2.5hrs. Also remember that to a little baby, even a picture book can be super stimulating. You could just talk to him so he hears your voice but no bright pictures etc. And if you can get it really dark in there, I bet that will help (also for future too, light in the bedroom can really mess with naps and also with early mornings).

OK - thanks so much!  I'll give it a shot and see if it helps.  I'm also going to make the crib sleep only in hopes to change what he thinks every time he goes into the crib.

So I've been wondering about this... If you stretch the A time to 2.5 and then he naps for 2, what about eating?  Do you stretch that too?  Where does that fit in?  My boy pretty much wants to eat every 2.5-3.5 hrs max.  I can stretch it to 4hrs for the 2 long naps, but in the evening he wants to make up for it. 

[anna*]

He'll probably wake up around the 4hr mark, hungry.

[Charlene.b]

Oh ok.  So as you push back nap time over the months, the idea is that you just feed them when they wake up?  So they start taking a little bit of shorter naps as time goes by?  I guess the solid food starts filling in the gaps as well though.

[anna*]

Yeh it's only really the next few weeks where it's an issue. Once they're on solids we stop being so concerned about the timing of feeds.