Q&A: How Can I Get My 4 Month Old To Sleep Alone Again?

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QUESTION:

“How do you get your four-month-old to sleep alone again? She was doing fine in her bassinet, which is right next to me in bed; however, for the last few weeks, she will cry in the middle of the night until I cuddle her back to sleep (which I don’t want to do because of the dangers of co-sleeping) I don’t want to fall asleep and accidentally hurt her or worse, but nothing else seems to work.“

RELATED: Advice: When Did Your Child Stop Sleeping In Your Bed?

Community Answers

The following top answers have been selected by a moderator from hundreds of responses to the original question.

“My daughter liked to be swaddled after she would eat and her bassinet had a vibrate option she loved it.”

“Newborns generally wake up every 3 to 4 hours for a feed, swaddled and put back to sleep, it’s very rare they will just sleep through or don’t need any settling each wake.”

“A bottle in the middle of the night if she wakes up and a swaddle works wonders for my first baby!”

“Try making the bassinet warm with a water outlet or heat pad.”

“My son is almost 4 months and we use a white noise machine and the nested bean weighted sleep sack.He’s been in his crib since about 2 months. He gets a bottle every time he wakes up which is usually 2-3 times a night and a diaper change once during that time. Unfortunately he’s one of these children who cries or fusses himself to sleep at the beginning of bedtime.I leave him be unless he’s really melting down.A bottle seems to do the trick though.”

“Look up the safe sleep 7. There ARE safe ways to bed share. I did it with both of my kids because it’s the only way anyone ever got any sleep. Your baby could also be hungry, going through a leap/growth spurt, teething etc. Babies have needs, even at night.”

“Change her diaper, feed her a bottle. If it doesn’t work see if she’s too hot or maybe cold. My daughter was the same. I ended up putting her crib next to mine she was almost 2 months old and the bigger space she liked more then the bassinet. Helped a lot I also put her to sleep (in the crib) her head was by my feet so I can see her and it was easier for me to pick her up and put her back. It happens tho there’s times they don’t sleep through the night and times they do. Hang in there.”

“I used a Baby Einstein to get my kiddo to sleep in her crib…eventually. But I swear it seems like the first 5 months I slept on the floor by her swing because my kiddo would only sleep in her swing.”

“I have a 3 wk old son who won’t sleep unless he feels me so I got a bassinet that you can put on the bed and I lay him down in there and hold his hand. It works for half of the night so I make sure that for the other half of the night I have something that will keep me up such as coffee or just talking on the phone.”

“When it comes to co-sleeping studies have shown there is no added risk when you follow the safe 7, which is how other countries with lower SIDS rates bed share. The fear mongering around co-sleeping is from studies where they lumped unsafe practices like accidentally falling asleep on the couch, drug and alcohol use, fluffy blankets and pillows. I’m not saying you have to co-sleep if you feel uncomfortable, but being exhausted and not setup for it, is where the risk lies, so I’d recommend at least setting up a safe sleep space so that if you do happen to fall asleep, it’s still going to be ok.”

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