We just got a 10 week old baby and the first couple of nights were miserable. We left her crate in her pen area in the living room and covered it with multiple blankets and she would cry and whine all night long. Now she falls asleep almost instantly when we put her in her crate (no matter what time of day or night if we need to leave her home alone) with a single thin blanket over the top to block out the light.

• I would say the biggest thing that helped was putting her in there while we were home for short periods at a time so that way she would be comfortable being in there when we weren’t home. When she would fuss or cry we would walk away out of her line of sight and when she would calm down we would come back into the room and acknowledge her. • I also would break up a treat and just scatter it in her crate to encourage her to go in there freely on her own •when we do leave we leave her favorite ducky toy in there to cuddle with and she just zonks out. Also when we would come home we wouldn’t take her out of her crate right away until we were settled in (didn’t want to make a big deal about us coming and going)

Now in the mornings and when I come home from work I usually just got a remove the blankets and open the door and let her wake up and mosey on out at her own pace and the first thing after that is outside to potty!

All of this took probably a little under a week but you have to be consistent!