Getting My Infant to Sleep Without Me??

Part one answer - Co Sleeping can be done safely. The deaths you hear about are from parents who are doing it unsafely.

At 2 months I would not expect a baby to sleep any more than yours is. Sounds completely normal. Is she swaddled? They make swaddle blankets in larger sizes if she wiggles out of it. Eventually she will sleep longer stretches.

Do you really need/want to get her out of your bed? If so, I usually moved to side car sleeping (crib next to your bed) around 3-4 months.

I start my babies sleeping alone at 4 months. I do it at naptime. I lay them in their crib 2 hours after they woke, swaddled, with it darker in the room, a noise machine or fan, and a projector mobile with soft music. Then I do something in the room like clean or fold laundry. I wait for them to fall asleep then sneak out. Once they are used to napping alone then I start them at night.

Part 2 -
Expect your baby to wake every 2 hours at night to nurse. She may or may not only be waking due to gas. If you are a nursing mom expect to have to nurse her back to sleep at this age. Much later on you will have to work on soothing back to sleep at night without nursing. That's a hard transition.

I never co-slept or used bassinets with my two. They both went into a crib in their own room from the day they came home with us. They both were sleeping a minimum of 5-6 hours at a time during the night by 12 weeks old. Both were breastfed.

I used On Becoming Babywise as a general guideline. The basic idea is that you arrange the ORDER of events for your baby. Not necessarily schedule them, but that flows naturally out of them following an order of events. The order is: Feed, awake, sleep. Feed, awake, sleep. What most moms normally do is: feed, sleep, awake, feed, sleep, awake. Did you catch the difference?
It can take a bit of effort on your part to keep your baby awake for a few minutes (maybe 15 minutes?) after you feed her, before letting her fall asleep. But it makes a difference.

If she is a gassy baby, are you certain you are adequately burping her during and after feeding? Some babies are difficult to get to burp, but it is still needed. My daughter was a real challenge. My husband often would take her to burp for me, because I just couldn't get one to come up---I was gently patting her back instead of REALLY patting her back. He could usually get a burp.
If all else fails, I used simethicone drops with our first baby a lot. He would wake at night with gas and I'd pick him up (still fussing--not because he was wanting to be held, but because he was uncomfortable) grab the bottle of simethicone drops (Mylicon or store brand), give him a dropper/dose, and he would almost immediately relax on my shoulder. I'd put him right back in bed and he would be asleep already.

Good luck to you. And WELCOME! There is lots of good information to be found here, and lots of different methods you can learn about to pick and choose from. :)

This may surprise you, but your baby is really behaving very normal for her age. At 2 months, breastfeeding babies are usually feeding every 2 hours even at night and stretch to every 3 hours by 3-4 months. A growth spurt occurs around 6 weeks, 8-9 weeks and again at 12 weeks at which time the baby seems particularly restless and eating much more frequently for 3-7 days. My babies usually ate every 90 minutes during growth spurts and I felt exhausted and at times hopeless. Her waking frequency at night is also not unusual. Breastfeeding babies don't overeat, so they must fill their little tummies more often. You sound like a very loving, attentive mother.
As for co-sleeping, if you are comfortable with the arrangement for now, just continue as you are. There is really very little risk of SIDS if the mother is breastfeeding and neither she nor others sharing the bed are under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Dr. Sears in his book The Fussy Baby Book actually points out that research indicates that a nursing mother sleeping next to her infant may actually prevent SIDS due to the greater awareness of her baby's breathing patterns. Please take time to read this short article which examines current research on the subject:http://askdrsears.com/news/latest-news/dr-sears-addresses....
I preferred my infants sleep in a bassinette next to the bed because i had trouble sleeping deeply when they were next to me. I swaddled my babies snugly and placed them in a bassinette in order to get 2 or 3 hours of sleep at night. Make sure the room temperature in your room is comfortable and a little on the cool side.
Exercise extreme caution with advice to put your baby on a feeding schedule. I tried it with my first baby using the Baby Wise book and my milk supply plummeted and at 2 months she was diagnosed "failure to thrive" by our pediatrician because she was weighing 1 ounce over birth weight. Breastfed babies should be fed on demand because they do not overeat. Please contact your lactation consultant at the hospital where you delivered if you have concerns about nursing or see www.kellymom.com for credible advice.
Some babies are great sleepers from the start and some are genetically wired for more frequent waking and less overall need for sleep. Don't sweat it, just try to know your baby and do what you must to get the most sleep. There's a lot of parenting books and well-meaning parents who will tell you what to do with your baby, but the advice is not always practical or prudent to follow. Trust your motherly instincts that God gave you and find what works for you and your family.
One more thing, my babies loved to be held for the first few months and they were happiest next to me. So I invested in a comfortable front carrier and used it every day. The Baby Bjorn with lumbar support was a lifesaver during those early days. I was able to cook, nurse, clean house, diaper my toddler and even fly a kite with my infant snuggled in the Baby Bjorn. Nurse Midwife Mom of 3

We were in the same boat. I was "feeding" DS as often as every hour. In retrospect, we were treating all cries as cries for hunger. We were probably doing him a disservice. He was gassy, and wanted to suckle, but didn't take much at a go because he was uncomfortable. He also woke often because he was never really full, or perhaps because he couldn't properly digest because he was constantly eating.

When he was crying nearly all the time at 3 months (because of colic, gassiness, overtiredness), whether in my arms, nursing, or as soon as we put him down, we used the Ferber method.

It worked for us.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

Hello, Do you have a co-sleeper that attaches to your side of the bed? If not, this may be a good option for you as your baby is so young and needs to be near mama, especially if she is nursing at night. You can pick up a co-sleeper for a song on craigslist and most are in excellent condition.

Here is one for $45:
http://kansascity.craigslist.org/bab/2889530560.html

(P.S. we co-slept from 6 months to 2 years old. It can be done safely if you are not obese, a heavy drinker or drug user or a heavy sleeper)

I started my son with the eat-play-sleep routine at about 6 weeks. It only took about a week and he started sleeping 6 hours a night in his crib.
During the day I would nurse him as long as he wanted, then I would change his diaper to wake him up. He would play for anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour. When he became fussy, I knew he was tired, not hungry, so I would rock him until he was almost asleep. He would have a hard time keeping his eyes open but he wasn't asleep yet. Then lay him down swaddled in his crib. He would sleep for about an hour and we would do it all again.
At night, I would let him nurse until he was almost asleep and put him in his crib and he slept fine.
We give him gripe water if his stomach seems upset or gassy.

Great first question from a new user!

I could have written this post exactly! My daughter is almost 3 months and will only take catnaps in our arms and sleeps rested on my arm at night and uses me more as a pacifier than to eat! I have no advice, as I'm in the same boat, but I'm hoping you get some great advice that will work for me too! Good luck!