Older baby – sleeping elsewhere besides crib - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

Ol'Line Rebel · 05-18-2009, 06:53 AM

1 of 2 inquiries I have up now; thought I'd separate them as different issues.

Do you have a baby that you got used to sleeping in his crib? Did you “train” the baby to sleep anywhere rather than just 1 place?

My 14 mo baby is stuck on his crib, so really won’t sleep anywhere else unless it’s absolutely irresistible. Mind you, he is highly interested in things, so stimulation from different locations (besides home) makes it a bit harder, I think. But even exhausted he tends to refuse to sleep anywhere but his crib. This makes it very hard to do anything but be at home (because he can be a bit crankier if he doesn’t sleep, although he’s generally a happy baby).

Accutane2X · 05-19-2009, 01:39 PM

My issue with my 14 month old is she will not sleep in the car. Yes, I know, most kids fall asleep right away in the car. She used to scream in the car, so I'm thankful that's over. She is a tummy sleeper and always has been (bad mommy!) so she won't sleep in the carseat. If we aren't at home at naptime, she skips it. Yes, she cranky, but sometimes I can't be at home ALL day!

marisuela · 05-22-2009, 03:40 PM

Personally, I do feel like it's something you have to train your baby to do. I've heard of parents who say their baby won't do.... whatever.... and my first question is always, "Well, how long did you work on it for?"

It's tough! Shopping with a tired and cranky 14 month old can't be fun!!! You find yourself planning everything around those naps, and while you're out, and naptime is getting close, you start sweating and stressing, wondering if you're going to make it home on time! Soon it gets to where it's just not worth leaving the house..... and not too long after that, you're a complete basket case because the walls start closing in on you.....

My advice is to pick a day, when you know your favorite place isn't really busy. Whether it's the mall, or Walmart, or Target.... wherever.... wait until he's close to naptime, then go to the place, and have at it! Walk the store until he passes out. As he's cranky and screaming, just talk to him calmly and soothingly, in a low voice. BUT, don't give him your attention. Be purposefully engaged in "shopping." You might absentmindedly stroke his hair here and there, or whatever, but don't give him your attention. Eventually he'll give it up and pass out. The first time will be the hardest, but after that it gets easier, because he will start to learn that, "Mommy is shopping and I am okay."

And no, you aren't ignoring your baby's needs. You are ignoring your baby's temper tantrum and in doing that, you are teaching your baby that throwing a tantrum doesn't work. And actually, at 14 months, he's considered a toddler..... in case that helps you mentally deal with letting him scream it out.

AND, don't worry about what other people are going to think. Toddlers cry. Most people understand that and those that don't obviously don't have kids!

Oh, and my advice is based on my own experience with probably the most strong willed, spoiled rotten, feisty little bugger of a princess that happens to be my now three year old daughter!

Ol'Line Rebel · 05-25-2009, 09:03 PM

Thank you for the suggestion!

Would you suggest making such a trip every day?

Right now, as "luck" would have it, I take my dad to his radiation treatments a couple days a week - at the time George should be starting to nap. So far, it's all too stimulating for him (Dad comes, we go in a car for a long 30-min trip, then in the hospital lobby with magazines, people, etc.), and he never goes to sleep in the morning as a result. Well, sometimes right at the end of our return home he's nodded off (total of anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hrs) in the car seat. But generally this is an example of how he won't sleep, yet it's been the same basic experience each time.

marisuela · 05-27-2009, 01:05 PM

I think we might have gone out a couple of times during the week to "practice." It probably really happened over a span of a month that she got really okay with sleeping while we were out.