You should try to put her in there before she falls asleep. 9am and 1pm have been good target times for both my children to sleep; your baby should be falling into a two nap system in the next month. Don't wait until she's tired. Use a loose schedule and watch for early signs of sleepiness.

Don't take her out and about during designated naptimes.

And as for the crying, I'd recommend keeping her wrapped like a burrito if she will still let you and find other ways to make the crib more womb-like. She's relaxing in womb like environments, so you need white noise, vibration, snugness, and warmth - even at this late stage (especially because she's a premie). Try putting her down in one of those swinging bassinets. Eventually, at a time comfortable to you, you may want to think about letting her cry it out- just make sure you don't do it halfway or it won't take.

Some of the above were ideas that I learned from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weisbluth.
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Sleep-Habits-Happy-Child/dp/0449004023
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We had similar problems, and I agree with what's been said above (particularly ticktock's list). Swaddling (burrito-wrapping, that is) was critical for us. We had a 3-4 nap daytime schedule for the first few months, however.

One especially handy product was the AmbyBaby hammock, a cloth bassinet suspended from a spring. She only used it for ~1 month, but it was a CRUCIAL one month. (Sadly, one of the few baby items we had to actually buy rather than beg/borrow/steal from friends.)

Many of the baby books I've read also suggest to expect preemies to meet early milestones (and behavioural changes like sleeping patterns) timed from roughly their due date rather than their birth. So, expect a bit of extra pain :(

On the shared-suffering front, before two months, I had a lot of late nights spent hugging, rocking, attempting to sleep with her, and dancing to loud Abba (and Ace of Base, she loves the Swedes) with the baby girl in the Bjorn. We had a policy that I'd get her to at least 2 hours out from the last feeding before attempting to put her down in her crib (which would often wake her, at which point I'd wake the wife to feed her). I therefore kept a clock that lit up with me at all times.. except the time I forgot it. Trapped on the couch with a sleeping baby on my chest, I had no way to tell whether we'd made it to the magic moment, but I was JUST able to fingertip-grab the camera from the coffee table next to the couch. Hauled it around, did a one-handed shot..

..and read the timestamp. Thank goodness, it was well over two hours :)

(This message courtesy of a temporarily distracted baby girl.)

P.S. She's 2 weeks old in the photo.

Thanks for all the input! I'll keep trying to get her used to the bassinet and experiment with other methods of freeing myself from holding her while she's sleeping. She does like being in her sling when I go for hikes, so maybe I'll try to utilize that around the house so I can get on my feet a bit more.

I find it hilarious that other people refer to swaddling as the 'burrito.' For the first few weeks I refered to my daughter as 'my little burrito' since she was wrapped up most of the time. It must be a guy thing :-)

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