# Transitioning from swing to crib



## saralee101 (Sep 26, 2008)

I coslept with my son until he was 2.5 months old, but we were only able to sleep for 2 hour stretches. One night, when I really needed to sleep longer, my husband tried getting him to sleep in the swing - and it worked like a charm!

He is now 4 months old and regularly sleeps 12 (!) hours per night. Really! And he is the happiest baby in the morning.

HONESTLY I think he prefers sleeping in the swing because it is more snuggly - which is apparently the worst word to describe a sleeping area for a baby if you don't want them to be a SIDS baby. When I put him down, I often see him with his head turned towards the padded head support trying to nurse, which he only does for a few minutes and then falls promptly to sleep.

HOWEVER - now I want to transition him to sleeping in a crib if possible. I mainly want to do this because I am worried about SIDS and safety. His current swing (which reclines fully) has only a regular 3 point harness, and I am afraid that we will wake up with him squirming out of it or dangling from it.

I've been looking at an Amby bed, but he's almost old enough to roll over, which some complain about with the Amby. I've also considered moving him into a different swing, one that is lower to the ground with a 5 point harness, which is better than what I have now (like the Boppy Rock in Comfort).

So here are my questions:

If you had a child who regularly slept in the swing, how did you transition them to a crib/flat sleeping surface?

If you found that you couldn't transition them, what alternative did you find?

Thanks for the input!


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## rhiandmoi (Apr 28, 2006)

There are other hammock style beds, like the Kanoe that might work better.


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## Eben'sMama (Jun 29, 2006)

I have also heard good things about the Happy Hangup, which your DS could use for several years.


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## Baby_Cakes (Jan 14, 2008)

When DD outgrew her swing at around 5-6 months, I had no idea what to do. She would fall asleep rocking and then I would take her out carefully, rock w/her a little more, and then carefully lie down on our bed w/her on my chest. Slowly slide her off. Leave her surrounded by pillows on our bed w/the monitor on in our room. She eventually started taking 2 hour naps on her own in our bed, being rocked by me or DH to fall asleep.

I still haven't figured out how to get her to sleep w/o rocking, but doing something like this might buy you time.

We have moved from putting her down in our bed to putting her in her crib and it works, too.

GL!


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## kdescalzi (Jul 30, 2007)

My ds slept so great in his swing from pretty much newborn to about 3/4 mos. He just preferred to sleep with movement. When I decided that he would eventually have to sleep on a flat/ non-moving surface we tried waiting until he was fully asleep and then we turned down the swing to the lowest setting. We did that for a few nights then we waited until he was fully asleep and turned the swing off. He didn't seem to notice it had stopped since he was so cozy and comfortable in it. Eventually I would nurse and rock him to sleep and by about 5/6 mos he would stay sleeping in his crib....good luck


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## saralee101 (Sep 26, 2008)

Forgot to mention...

We already turn off the swing before we go to bed. We began doing this after one night when the batteries ran out overnight - and he didn't even notice.

So, step one accomplished?


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