too much crying

[Henna21]

I started EASY this week and so far the biggest challenge is getting my DD (10 weeks) to sleep.  I was trying the pat/shush method to put her in her crib and it worked for the first few days but then yesterday she would scream every time i tried to put her down.  each nap was taking at least an hour and bedtime was taking 2 hours.  this was way too much screaming for me.  i feel like i'm traumatizing my poor baby and i don't want to break her trust.  the whole point of why i liked tracy's method is that she does not want the babies to cry at all.

so far i am getting very good at reading her tired signs and putting her to sleep right away.  she generally calms down and falls asleep in my arms pretty quickly.  the problem comes when i try to put her down.  what can i do  so that there will not be so much crying.

i was thinking about letting her fall asleep on me and then try to put her on the bed. meaning first just get her used to falling asleep on her tummy by herself even if it is on me.  we used to rock her for hours to put her to sleep so the fact that she can fall asleep on her is a big step i think.  is letting her fall asleep on me just changing one bad habit for another? i want to teach her right. i don't want to have to go back and keep undoing my accidental parenting, its not fair to my dd.

please help me come up with a solution where she will cry less.

[vadensmommy]

I can't offer any first hand advice, as we've never done pat/shhh for sleep training.  We did a lot of AP, but have an angel baby and were able to transition to independent sleeping fairly easily and quickly.  BUT, I have read that many times there is an "extinguishing" effect whenever you change a habit (not only for babies, but adults as well) where you implement something new such as sleep training/ shhh/pat, and things go ok for a few days, then it all goes down the toilet, because the baby thinks -"I'll give it one last shot and see if I can make mom crack, and make her go back to the old/familiar way of doing things and rock me to sleep again".  So if anything maybe see if you can stick it out another day or two, and if it doesn't get any better then try another route.  I know you are supposed to "start as you mean to go", and avoid AP if possible, but I do completely understanding needing to do what you can to get your baby to sleep at some point in time so their crying doesn't completely make you crazy.  I hope things get better, it is so great when they can get to sleep on their own, helps with your own sanity so much!!!  Good luck!

[meltown]

what does your routine look like?

amd yes it would be cjust changing hbits.  as you start sleep training you can expect some protest and crying but it does sound like a lot of time is spent doign that.

[Shaunie]

My LO was awful when it came to bed time, it would take hours and lots of tears.....from me too!  When he was around 8/10 weeks, DH got fed up, put Jonah in his cot and walked out of the room - Jonah was quiet and then fell asleep!  It turned out that he didn't like the fuss of us trying to get him to sleep and it was probably stimulating him.  He slept independently ever since.  Don't know if you'll have less tears but its worth a shot.