Calling all Velcro baby mamas

[thatguyagain]

@handlotion What have we gotten ourselves into? I can’t figure out if it’s my fault I’m in this predicament. I often wonder if I was a different mom would I be able to get her to sleep in a bassinet? Or is it just her temperament and no matter the person she would need to cosleep in my arms? I’m dreading the day we have to wean her from nursing at night and sleeping independently. I just don’t know how it’s even possible at this point. I’m in Paris, but I’m from the states. Wow Normandy! Beautiful region. Are you French?

 

[handlotion]

@thatguyagain Nope also American, from Atlanta originally. I have two other mom friends who have the same issue. One of them kept trying the bassinet and can now get 30 minutes naps in there. She kept trying. Another one ended up sleep training and he took to it after a week. I’m not sure I am cut out for sleep training, so I guess I’m stuck with cosleeping.

I tried putting him down a few times, but then he wakes up and is overtired. I felt like I wasn’t prioritizing his needs and not sure if it’s laziness or lack of perseverance, but I accepted my situation and have done all contact naps.

 

[thatguyagain]

@handlotion That’s so cool! It’s so nice to talk to someone who lives over here. Okay, so we’re not the only ones. But omg yes, you said it perfectly. I don’t know if I’m being lazy or lacking perseverance. I don’t feel like depriving her of sleep. I can’t deal with the CIO method either. I’m a teacher so I’m thinking of waiting until summer break to start something new with her. I can’t wait to lie down flat. I’m from Chicago!

 

[handlotion]

Are you using a nounou or is your baby in the crèche, with an assignant maternelle? I have so much anxiety about how he will be with the assistante maternelle when I have to go back to work.

 

[thatguyagain]

@handlotion She’s with an assistante maternelle and I was so ridden with anxiety before going there bc I thought she wouldn’t sleep but she does! She doesn’t take as long of naps as she would with me but a couple times a week the nounou she slept for an hour and a half. She said she has to wrap her up in a sheet to get her to sleep in the bassinet. It’s almost like a swaddle. Most of the time tho she takes 20 min naps so she’s overtired when I pick her up. You can imagine the train ride home . I think the nounou will figure something out for your baby and the baby will understand.

 

[nikki21]

@handlotion Human pillow here with a 6-month-old. My daughter will only nurse to sleep and if I try to put her down, she wakes up. We bedshare, and at night she falls asleep lying on the bed while side-lying nursing. She won’t do it for naps during the day, though; I have to hold her for those. It can be tough sometimes, but I try to remind myself that one day she’ll sleep on her own and I’ll miss the contact naps and sleepy cuddles.

 

[margaretjankowski]

@handlotion When my girl was 4 months old she got so sensitive too! Now she's 8 months and she's getting better at me rolling away and naps so easily on the go. It gets better! Sending you love in this challenging time though. You're giving such a gift to your sweet baby.

 

[lanita]

@handlotion Are you me? Lol. My LO is 4 months, and I've been a human pillow 24/7 since birth. He also started getting super distracted by everything around a month ago, so we nurse and sleep in a dimly lit bedroom. Solidarity!

 

[love4truth]

@handlotion As someone who was in the same situation. It gets better. Takes hard work on parents part tho. I was d0etermined for naps to be in her bassinet so if she slept 20min in there and I contact nap the rest that was a win. Eventually she understood the bassinet was for sleeping.. it came in waves tho. During sleep regression it became impossible to transfer her, but eventually that passes.

 

[handlotion]

@love4truth I can’t even get 5 minutes in a bassinet. He turns into an owl and eyes fly open. I once got him to sleep in a pack & play for 13 minutes. I think I gave up trying to transfer after that. It was exhausting to start over trying to put him back to sleep again. I just gave into cosleeping and it has been working great, but today was tough. I’m still hungry .

 

[love4truth]

@handlotion I think at 3-4months I was still stuck doing all contact Naps. After that I started transferring her even a few minutes is a win. As someone who couldn't leave the bed cuz my tits were the only thing keeping baby asleep. It gets better

 

[jdcnosse]

@handlotion Why can’t your husband hold the baby when you eat?

My baby is the same way, loves to be held. Me and my husband switch off. He puts her to sleep at night and I have 2 hours to myself.

As far as eating goes, put him on the table in one of these baby loungers so he can watch you eat. Or have your husband hold him while you eat. He can also hold him when you shower.

Try baby carriers during the day, so you can do things around the house or walk around and your baby just comes for the ride.

 

[handlotion]

@jdcnosse Baby falls asleep on me and the transfer have woken him up in the past. I need to move up my dinner time to before he sleeps, but he is falling asleep at 7 so that’s a really early dinner for me.

My husband helps out a lot but sleep hasn’t worked so well with him.

 

[naiduindia]

@handlotion Keep trying things that didn't work in the past!!! They change every day!!

 

[keepinitreal]

@handlotion I take it that she also doesn’t sleep on her dad? My baby is a lot like yours and although she prefers me, we’ve had some success with transferring her to dad once she’s deep asleep.

She will also sleep in her stroller as long as it’s moving, so sometimes my husband will rock her in the stroller with one hand while scrolling his phone with the other.

Other than that, you said in another comment that babywearing doesn’t work for you, may I ask which carriers you have tried? I love babywearing sooo much, it has a learning curve but once you get the hang of it it gives you so much freedom! I can have dinner, do dishes or laundry, do my skincare routine and even go to the toilet, all while she sleeps on me lol

 

[handlotion]

@keepinitreal For me the day time is fine, I love contact napping, it’s my favorite part of the day. I can rock him to sleep and then I watch Netflix on my phone or read.

My husband has gotten him to sleep in stroller so he’ll take him out for walks on nice days and I get some down time that way (though it’s been pretty crappy weather the last few weeks where I live).

I have the little frog baby carrier. It’s great but he gets sick of it pretty easy. The timing of when I put him in has to be like an exact science I can’t figure out. If I put him in closer to a nap, he gets super annoyed and cranky, but sometimes vacuuming the house calms him down and puts him to sleep.

 

[retiefff]

@handlotion Our bedtime is 6 PM. I lay in bed and play on my phone till 8-8:30 and then I can’t up till about midnight. That’s when I do the majority of my cleaning and laundry. I also eat early too by 5:30. I let my LO sleep on her belly and it helps her sleep longer while I’m up cleaning.

 

[fskiddles]

@handlotion I’ve been in this boat for 10 months. It’s very difficult to escape from baby as she wakes up easily.
One thing that helped and gave me a maybe 45 min window is we ditched the bed frame and have a floor bed and I set up our baby monitor in our bedroom as her crib is basically decoration at this point.
With the floor bed and monitor I could sneak out for food easily. Or I would have hubby come and lay down and he would text me if baby was waking up and I would jet back in.

 

[fskiddles]

Oh and get a Kindle. That was a game changer for me.

 

[handlotion]

@fskiddles This is what I suggested to my husband earlier today because as it is, baby will start crawling at some point so we need it to be safer for him.