in May 2022 Babies 🇬🇧

Sleepyhead for sleep - trying to wean off!

Hi! My little girl has had the sleepyhead deluxe to sleep in since she was born. She's never been a great sleeper (up around 3 times a night usually) but she would happily go to bed and settle for a couple of hours at a time. She is growing out of it now and either needs to have the next size up or come out of it. Seeming as she's never been an amazing sleeper I wasn't convinced it was worth the investment of the next one so am trying to remove it. Its been 5 nights now and it's been awful. I literally can't get her to settle in her bed. Last night she slept in her bed from 8pm til 10.30pm then I spent over 2 hours trying to put her back down before giving up and having her in our bed. I then have some sleep but am always really just dozing as our bed isn't set up for Co sleeping (mattress isn't very firm). She went back to her own bed between 6am and 7am and that's it. She is just about crawling and not got any teeth yet but I feel they are on the way too. I think we may be having a sleep regression and maybe my taking away of the sleepyhead was really poor timing?! So I'm not sure how to proceed - do I stick with not having the sleepyhead? And just ride it out now I've started to remove it? Or do I put it back seeming as this seems like a regression and it may give her some comfort? I don't want to Co sleep as the bed isn't big enough for all of us and I never sleep very well - she needs to sleep in her bed. Any advice or experiences welcome! Thanks!

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I’d persevere, as the sleepyheads aren’t recommended for overnight sleep anyway I wouldn’t put it back in.

I’d just crack on now you’ve ditched it. As above, they’re not really safe for overnight/unsupervised sleep from the get go and especially once they’re on the move so it’s well overdue. Especially if you think there’s something else going on and you’d be dealing with rubbish sleep anyway - personally don’t see the point of getting another sleepyhead, her sleeping better then having to get rid of it and sleep going to 💩 again. Could you put her mattress on the floor, lay and comfort her to sleep and then roll away once she’s fallen asleep and get into your bed? Then you could lay with her to resettle if needed too x

My oldest daughter had her own sleepyhead deluxe and then progressed onto the Grande as she loved it so much. She was always a great sleeper though so it felt Warreted 😂 she had the odd regression and would wake in the night and sometimes have 3 hours of rocking to get her to go back to bed but she always did. And the wake up was never until around 2am but with my littlest it is usually from around 10pm 🙃 I know that the lullaby Trust doesn't recommend them but she's always been in a next to me bed up into about 2 months ago and now she is in a travel in the corner of our room. We currently have an extension being built on our house which will give us more space but until then she has to share with us rather than her sister/own room. This is my second baby and I honestly felt like I knew what I'm doing this time around but I feel utterly lost. It's so hard being barely any sleep and then having to run around with an almost 3 year old all day 😢😢😢

I'm in the same situation... My older one slept in a sleepyhead from about a month old and it made life so much better, I put her in the grande too then about 10months she'd rolled over in it and slept all night, I had a major panic and didn't use it again with her but she was fine without it cold turkey. My 8mo I thought I don't want that to happen but finding it hard to transition,I'll feed her to sleep, put her in the cot then when she wakes she rolls over and starts crying! Sometimes she will fall asleep but not always. After 90mins of wake time in the night I put her back in the sleepyhead and she slept for 5.5 hours which is a record 😂😣 For her nap this morning, I put her down on her front as I know she can move her head well and she has rolled on to her front and slept a few times and she had a good nap, so im going to keep trying that but keep a close eye on her....I know its not recommended but she would just flip over herself anyway so I don't see the difference...

Take the sleepyhead out and roll up a towel and place it in a similar position underneath the sheet on the cot mattress so it stays in place. Gradually make it a wider U shape once a week until it’s no longer needed. Lots of videos on YouTube about weaning off the sleepyhead!

How did bed time go tonight? I panicked at putting her on her tummy so have since put her on her back. I'm not sure I'll ever get her to self settle without her sleepyhead

Okay so far! She went down at about 8pm and still settled and asleep at the moment! No sleepyhead, just in her sleep sack in her cot. I don't think babies are capable of self settling at this age anyway - we always have to rock to sleep and then transfer while she is asleep to her bed. I think the part of their brain where they can self settle develops later 😊 hope your night goes well! I will settle just for a few hours sleep tonight 😅

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