Sleep props come in all shapes and sizes.  You’ve done a wonderful job making sure that your baby hasn’t become dependent on being rocked or nursed to sleep.  Now use those same ideas when thinking about “where” he sleeps.

For those with younger infants, it’s helpful to begin early putting baby down for naps in different rooms of the house, once or twice a week.  If you have a portable bassinet or portable crib, that’s great, but a playpen works well too, as well as a stroller that can fold down flat for napping.  Once baby is too big for the bassinet, you can still use the playpen for this purpose.

Once your baby is about 6 months old or older, there will be a bit more re-training involved.  Some find it helpful to start with the nighttime sleep in the playpen, others choose naps – the idea is to pick what suits your family best and begin to help your little one work through learning this new skill of falling asleep elsewhere besides his crib. Try starting by placing his playpen or portable crib in his room next to his crib and using it for sleep for a couple of nights or naps in a row.  Once he’s got that down, try moving it into another room of the house, for his naps for a day.  Once he’s fine with napping in it where ever it happens to be, he can move back to his crib, but have him take a nap in the portable crib now and again (once or twice a week) so that it will still feel familiar to him when you do need to use it away from home.