# help! My little swing addict is getting too big



## ErinRN (Dec 14, 2015)

My ten month old is outgrowing her swing. She is not a good sleeper and never has been. I work night shift, so we co-sleep on nights when I'm home. Even being next to me in bed she wakes frequently to nurse (about every 2 hours) and needs to maintain physical contact at all times. She sleeps in the swing on nights I work, and for all of her naps during the day. It is getting to a point where she is outgrowing the swing and we are at our wits end as to what we should do. I even tried CIO which I hated, and after hours of screaming she napped only 20 minutes. Tried it again multiple times with the same outcome. In desperate need of suggestions. I even thought maybe a hammock in the crib that would give her the same enclosed feeling as the swing? But seems like she could fall out if she wiggled enough, and she is definitely a wiggler.


For the record: she will not cosleep with my husband when I am home. She wants to nurse and screams with frustration when she realizes she cant. I have also tried nursing her to sleep during the day on a floor bed and walking away once shes deeply asleep- she wakes up screaming within 20 minutes, and this is also not an option for any caregiver other than myself.


What am I going to do once she outgrows this swing? Any other creative solutions? Please help!


----------



## Letitia (Aug 27, 2009)

Hugs to you, it's not easy to have a kid who has sleeping challenges. I don't want to say "good" or "bad" sleeper - that implies they have some choice in it, and I don't think they do. 

Our little guy grew out of the swing younger, and the only way anybody could get him to sleep (it was always me, nobody else could do it until my dad stayed with us when he was over 2) was to hold him snuggly, rock vigorously while patting his butt very fast, with white noise. He wore big cloth diapers so I could be hitting the diaper pretty hard and what it did was just kind of vibrate him. Sometimes I'd jiggle him (not shake) while rocking. When he was smaller we'd swaddle him, but when he was older I'd just hold him snugly and all around as much as I could. He also used a pacifier for a bit, although was never really attached to it. 

Do you have a rocking chair? How about a white noise source? We used a radio station preset to static at first, then a cheap Timex clock radio that also played the sound of waves. 

The big thing to remember is, this too will pass.


----------

