Hi. I’m Dana. Welcome to this week’s video. I’ve been seeing a lot of questions lately about babies sleeping in swings or that cute little Rock ‘n Play that they just came out with or strollers or car seats. The question is how do I get out of this now that I’m in it? That’s a very common problem.

Why it happens in the first place is that newborn babies tend to sleep a little bit better in those things. If they’re in a Rock ‘n Play and if you don’t know what that is it’s like a little hammock on a stand. It’s very cozy. It looks very cozy. It cocoons around them a little bit and it gives them lots of good comfort and cuddle and they love it. It makes sense. I would love it. They sleep a little bit better in there then they do in their crib or their bassinet so the temptation is let’s just keep putting her here because she’s sleeping better.

I had a similar experience with my first son in the swing. I couldn’t get this guy to sleep in his first few months. I can remember the day my husband came home from work and I was so excited. I said, “You’ve got to come see what I did today.” I presented our baby fast asleep in the swing and the swing was just going at full tilt. He slept a lot of his naps and even in the night in that swing. I’ve had a lot of clients who they’ve got an 8 month old who’s 22 pounds. He’s the weight limit has been gone a long time ago but they’re still swinging their baby to sleep because that’s the only way he sleeps. That’s why they’re calling me to help them out of that.

That’s why it happens. How do you get yourself out of it? It is important to eventually get yourself out of it. It is not good quality sleep for your baby to be sleeping in a swing. We know that motion sleep, whether it’s in a swing or a bouncer or the stroller or the car, is not the same quality sleep as sleeping on a stable mattress or some sort of a crib environment. That’s because our bodies don’t know we’re fully safe therefore it’s not going to let us slide into deep stage 3 sleep as often or for as long because there’s that concern that we’re not safe. If you’re sitting in a chair you’re not going to really slide into deep sleep because your body and brain is like what’s happening here. You might fall out of this chair and hurt yourself. It’s a protection mechanism that keeps us in the lighter stages of sleep. It’s not a long-term solution at all, even the Rock ‘n Play. There’s a weight limit to that. Your baby’s going to pass the weight limit and you’re going to have to eventually move them out of there.

How do you do it? The bad news is there’s really no easy way. There’s really no easy way to transition out of the swing, out of the Rock ‘n Play and into the crib. You just have to make a decision and say, “You know what? We’re not going to do it that way anymore. We’re going to do it this way now. You’re going to be in your crib now because that’s the best place for you to be long-term.” Not only that, it’s going to be an adjustment period. That makes total sense, doesn’t it? If you were used to sleeping in a swing with motion and now you’re not, it’s going to be a little concerning for you. How do you figure out how to do this on your own?

If you’re not sure what that would look like then I would recommend you pick up a copy of the Sleep Sense program. You might like to do the stay in the room method so you can be there with the baby and support them as they learn how to sleep in the crib and know that it’s going to take a few nights and know that it’s going to be a bit rocky at first. Nobody’s going to be sleeping as well. You’re going to be tempted, “We can just stick him back in that swing.” At 3:00 in the morning that temptation’s going to sink in a little bit. You’ll be looking at that swing and it looks pretty good to you, but resist that urge because the more you back step into the old motion prop of the swing the harder this is going to be on all of you.

Once you’ve made the decision, you might even decide you want to just toss the swing at this point so you’re not as tempted to go back to that. Again, no easy way. Good news is it really only takes about a week for a baby to figure out how to sleep in a new environment and they’re going to sleep better and longer and more solidly and consolidated through the night which is ultimately the best thing for them.

Thanks so much for watching today. Sleep well.