Hello baby whisperers!
My son is 9 months old, and although I have read the baby whispering book, I have never really applied the EASY schedule with him. In the books, Tracy mentions a few times that the family bed works fine for some families, and if it does then good for them. My problem is that for the first nine moths, the family bed worked great with my son--he has an angel temperament and he always slept through the night fine when he was in the bed, while mommy and daddy got a good sleep too. I thought to myself--if it ain't broke why fix it? My problem is that, my son still sleeps well, through the night, and has nice good naps during the day... but he has just gotten so big that his presence in the bed has started to disturb me and my husband. Now I can't figure out how to transition from the bed to a crib.
First of all, I don't know how to help him settle down for sleep. He is far too big and strong to swaddle, and I don't even know if that is recommended for his age. It seems that whenever I try to get him ready for sleep he is awake and alert and just wants to play. The. There is the crib--the side doesn't fold down and I am short, so I have to break my back to lower my 20+ lbs. baby over the rail, only to have him wake up because he feels like he is in free fall.
To be honest, he usually falls asleep on the breast. There is so much stigma around allowing your baby to use feedings as a sleeping crutch--for me it was a matter of both the baby and myself and my husband all had a better sleep this way, so I didn't think it was a problem. However now I don't know how to make the transition to self soothing.
Anyway, I just don't know where to start. I feel like if I try anything I'm just going to mess up the sweet deal I already have and go from having slight disturbance from him kicking me once or twice a night to having him awake and crying all night long. Is it worth it?
