It may be hard to believe this now that you’re pregnant or holding a squishy newborn, your little one will grow quickly before your eyes and before you know it, it will be time to help them “graduate” from the bounce. 

One of the number one questions that curious, expecting parents ask us is “Does Cradlewise have a weaning mode?”, “Does Cradlewise offer some sort of options to help wean the baby from the motion when they grow older and need to transition out?” 

And we get it, where these questions come from. If you go nursery shopping, you’ll see that many smart baby beds and cribs rock babies all night long, which can sometimes make babies used to constant rocking in order to fall asleep. Naturally, weaning becomes tougher as babies grow older. Cradlewise solves this problem as you and your baby get to decide and choose when you want to graduate from using the bounce.

Here, we break down everything you need to know about how to help wean your little one from using the bounce.

Does Cradlewise have a weaning mode?

Weaning is built into every feature of our product’s design.

The crib is minimalist in its approach to soothing the baby. When the baby starts stirring, the crib starts bouncing at low intensity. If the wakeup progresses further, the intensity of the bounce increases. Once the baby transitions from active awake to light sleep, the bounce intensity reduces. The crib stops bouncing completely when the baby falls asleep. It mimics a parent and bounces only when needed. The ‘Smart mode’ is designed to be responsive and intervene only when required.

As bouncing is used very minimally, the weaning effort is low.

What is the ‘Sensitivity’ setting in the crib/bassinet?

Crib ‘Sensitivity’ determines how quickly and how often the crib bounces. It controls the point at which cribs auto soothes based on the baby’s activity level and in doing so, helps you with weaning.

Reducing ‘Sensitivity’ is like taking the training wheels off a bike. By dialing it down gradually, you are teaching your child to self-soothe.

• Keep it on higher sensitivity during those first few months.

Higher crib sensitivity means that even when your baby stirs a little, the crib will start bouncing to prevent them from waking up. You can keep the crib sensitivity at ‘High’ or ‘Very high’ level when your baby is less than 6 months old, because when they are little, if they are stirring or moving a lot, it means that they are about to wake up.

• Lower the sensitivity setting as they grow.
  Lower sensitivity of the crib means that the crib will not start bouncing at the slightest movement of your baby. You can reduce the crib sensitivity when your baby is around 9 months old, because as babies grow, they love tossing and turning in their sleep. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are about to wake up.

• Increase sensitivity during rough nights.
  However, many things can disrupt your baby’s sleep routines, like sleep regressions, teething, vaccination, illness, etc. You can choose to increase the sensitivity of the crib to give your baby some extra TLC during these tough moments.

To adjust the crib ‘Sensitivity’: Navigate to Settings > Soothing > Smart controls > Sensitivity > Select your preferred sensitivity level from ‘Very low,’ ‘Low,’ ‘Medium,’ ‘High,’ and ‘Very high’.

Does Cradlewise bounce the baby all night?

No, the smart soothing features are only activated when your baby stirs from their sleep. The crib stops bouncing when your baby goes to sleep. The crib’s gentle bouncing is capped at 30 minutes. However, if you prefer to keep a continuous low bounce even after the baby has dozed off, you can try out the ‘After sleep bounce’ setting.

How does Cradlewise’s bounce work?

Cradlewise’s approach to soothing babies is minimalist. Cradlewise’s bounce mimics what you would have done as a parent.

When the baby stirs, Cradlewise starts bouncing at a low intensity. When the crib bounces and the baby goes to a deeper state of sleep, it keeps bouncing with reduced intensity all the way till the baby slips into a deep sleep.

On the other hand, if the baby continues to cry or stays awake, the crib tries to soothe with a higher level of bounce and sound. If the baby protests and does not fall back asleep despite 30 mins of trying by the crib, the Smart mode times out and stops soothing. It’s time for your expert intervention. 🙂  

Since the crib stops bouncing once the baby goes back to sleep, the effort for weaning is not as much. Plus, you can turn off bounce when you want. 

How will my baby learn to self-soothe?

As your child grows and starts demonstrating self-soothing cues (falling asleep on their own at night, moving their head back and forth, playing with feet/sucking on hands, sucking with or without a pacifier, re-positioning/rolling around, or soft crying with pauses or lulls as they are entering sleep) you can gradually begin to reduce the crib sensitivity, so it takes longer for the bouncing motion to kick in. As for the timing of when to make this transition, you and your little ones are the best judges.

By gradually reducing the crib sensitivity, you are teaching your child to self-soothe. Gradually, they will learn to self-soothe without the need for motion at all.

It can take up to a month to complete this process. Once your little one is ready, toggle Off the Bounce within App Settings.

To toggle Off the bounce: Navigate to Settings > Soothing > Bounce > Mode > Toggle ‘Off.’

Since babies are utilizing this crib for longer than most other smart bassinets, do they have trouble transitioning from this crib to a normal bed?

The crib/bassinet doesn’t bounce constantly and only starts when your baby needs soothing. Since the bounce stops once the baby goes back to sleep, they don’t get used to constant bouncing compared to other smart baby beds.

What other features of the crib can help my baby sleep after they stop using the bounce?

Even after your little one stops using the smart sensing motion features of the crib, they can still use the built-in sound machine and custom sleep tracks as a tool in their toolkit arsenal to help them get better sleep for up to the first two years of their life (until they are ready to fully graduate to a toddler bed.) PROBLEM SOLVED. 🙌