[Yanet Cabrera]

Yeah so initially I thought going to sleep meant fully asleep but she would already have her eyes closed by the time she lets us stop rocking, so she actually has never fallen asleep without motion at all, except nursed to sleep which works sometimes but often she wakes up within 5–10 minutes of seemingly being asleep when nursed to sleep, she also often wakes 5-10 minutes after seemingly being asleep and laid in her crib.

[Yanet Cabrera]

Thank you Emma, I will start to incorporate all of your suggestions my only question is is there a good plan for removing motion from the way she sleeps? If she doesn’t have motion she cries a lot and we end up having to bounce at least a little bit to get her to calm.

[Yanet Cabrera]

1. You mentioned you’re swaddling her. In the swaddle are her arms up by her head or down by her side? Down by her side she settles faster, I recently have tried one arm by her face so you can suck on her hand but I think it distracts her from falling asleep she falls asleep slower I think but she does fall asleep deeper whenever she finally does and she has been sucking on her hand
2. I noticed popping her in the swaddle is the second last step,how would she go if you put her in the swaddle at the start of the routine. So she does cry a lot very intensely when we put on the swaddle, I don’t know how to avoid it, even when we put it on at the beginning or towards the end, maybe I need a longer middle routine, maybe it’s too short to just draw the blinds turn on white noise only takes about a minute, I’m open to suggestions
3. When you rock her to sleep in your arms (so immediately after the sleep routine), does she fall asleep quickly (so under 5 minutes) or does it take a long time? She does sometimes but other times she takes a while

[Yanet Cabrera]

• How old is your little one? From my calculations she might be 13 weeks? Yes she is. Her due date was 11/1/25 but she was born on 11/13/25
• Was she born at full term or premature? If she was born premature how many weeks premature? Full term. Her due date was 11/1/25 but she was born on 11/13/25
• Doe she have formula or breastmilk? Exclusively breastfed
• Have you been able to follow the wake, feed, play, sleep routine during the day? Yes we do wake feed play sleep with 60-120 wake window range
• Does she use a pacifier? No, I try to offer it but she always sticks her tounge out and rejects it. I’ve tried many different ones and she doesn’t take any
• Can you please describe to me what her nap and bedtime routine looks like? For naps we go into her room I shut the door and the curtains and draw the blackout curtains, turn on white noise and a shusher then I put swaddle on her and sing twinkle twinkle while rocking/bouncing, for bedtime we start with a bath and feed before turn on white noise and a shusher then I put swaddle on her and sing twinkle twinkle while rocking/bouncing
• Can you also describe to me what her bedroom is like? Is it cool, dark (so dark you can’t read a book) and free from sudden loud noises? Yes we use 70F a/c and have white noise on room dark
• Also, you mentioned that she has started to wake more overnight – what does it look like overnight now? Now it’s even like 5 times, fir example last night was 11:30(I fed her at this wake up hoping it would take her to 3am like you suggested), then she woke again 1:30, then again 3(fed here again because she wouldn’t settle), and then again 4:30 which I then brought her into bed at this point
• When she wakes overnight, does she fall asleep while feeding and you can transfer her straight into the crib or do you need to hold her. She will fall asleep feeding but I still need to hold her for a while before placing her because she will wake, I also have been trying to avoid overnight feeds because I thought her not having them would mean she wouldn’t need to wake up overnight and she was sleeping the night through before on some nights but she hasn’t slept the night in a couple weeks
• When you rock her to sleep for her naps, is she laying down in your arms or is she upright? It changes sometimes she won’t settle one way and wants the other, before used to be more upright and now it’s more often horizontal
• Is she generally happy during the day when she is awake? She is generally happy while awake and only really cries and complains while we try to put her to sleep

[Yanet Cabrera]

Unfortunately things have not gotten better. We have tried the settling pyramid even with modifications no success, she still cries to be picked up and will not sleep until we pick her up. Also, she has been waking more overnight. I’ll try offering a feed at the first wake up, but I was trying to avoid feeds at all since before she would not need any feeds at all.

[Yanet Cabrera]

• 2/9/26
• 6am wake in bassinet, nurse to sleep in bed
• 6:40 wake for the day(6:30-7am wake up everyday)
• 7 feed change
• 8:05 sleep(crib)
• 8:40 wake feed change
• 10:15 sleep(crib)
• 10:50 wake feed change
• 12:25 sleep(crib)
• 1:40 wake feed, as an aside she has started again falling asleep while nursing, she had stopped doing that since she was like 6ish weeks. Should I let her sleep more if she falls asleep or wake her?
• 2 sleep(in arms while nursing)
• 3 woke her up
• 4 feed change
• 4:50 sleep(crib)
• 5:20 wake feed change
• 6:30 bath, 6:50 feed, 7:10 twinkle twinkle rocking till eyes closed, transfer finally successful @ 7:55, woke up 11:20 went back down without feed, woke again @1:10 fed a little and put back down, woke again 5:10 nurses to sleep in bed kept there til 6:50am wake up
• (Bedtime is supposed to be 7-7:30ish sometimes a little earlier if she woke up from last nap early)
• Today she had horrible naps she didn’t let me put her in crib complained a lot and still woke up overnight

[Yanet Cabrera]

After a few more days of stopping motion we have tried the settling pyramid again, but it’s not going well at all. My baby complains and grunts and squirms while doing the sleep routine so at the end of the routine, after the lullaby, should I place her in the crib even though she’s not calm? If I wait to, she is calm she will fall asleep. If I don’t wait, and I place her down after the sleep routine, she immediately goes to screaming her head off. Even though we have done many days her going to sleep with no motion. Also my little one sleeps through the night sometimes. But what should I do if she wakes up just like an hour or so before wake up time? Her wake up time is 6:30-7 and she woke up last night at 5:45 and was not going back to sleep. She also often will wake up from 4am on because of very active sleep, any way to try to help this?

• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by  Emma H. Reason: removed html

[Yanet Cabrera]

Thank you! Right now, what we’re doing is rocking her until she’s calm, then stopping the motion and, if she remains calm, placing her slowly and gently into the crib. If I move slowly enough, she usually doesn’t protest, but if I move too quickly or less gently or randomly she notices I’m placing her in crib she starts crying again. The confusing part is that she closes her eyes while I’m rocking her, so I’m not sure whether she’s actually asleep or just calm, because sometimes when I stop rocking even with her eyes closed she fusses or cries and I have to start rocking again. Eventually she stays calm without motion and I transfer her, but I’m unsure whether I’m accidentally waking her, whether “eyes closed” actually means she’s asleep, and whether she is still relying on motion to fall fully asleep.

[Yanet Cabrera]

How long is realistic to start seeing results?

A few follow up questions: for her sleeping without movement I’ve started to rock her till calm then stop rocking and keep her held but she does close her eyes completely in my arms before I place her in crib. For how long do I continue this before starting to place her down with eyes open? I’m having a hard time figuring out the progression. We are doing this method with basically every nap. Another question I had is when she’s tired and we start the bedtime routine/nap routine she does seem to complain and grunt and squirm a bunch, is there anyway to avoid this ir help it or what’s going on there as I think it’s her powering down method and I just don’t see how we will link her needing to power down and eyes closed in our arms to her being placed completely awake in crib.