Put down drowsy? I can't put down asleep!

[noblegiraffe]

I keep hearing about how I should put my baby down to sleep when he is drowsy, but I can't see this ever working. To get him to sleep requires concerted effort, rocking for ages or feeding him to sleep. Once asleep, he needs to be cuddled for at least 10 minutes during which time he will wake up several times, and then he can usually be put down and stay asleep.

If he is put down awake but tired, he will cry, and get more and more worked up. How do people go from rocking to 'put down drowsy'?

[FairyLightsForever]

How old is your baby?
It will be difficult at first to 'put down drowsy' if he's used to being put down asleep.

The only way I could do it was to put my dd in her cot and then lay my hand on her chest, lots of shush-ing too. Then I would gradually remove my hand, continuing with the shush-ing but with bigger and bigger gaps between each "shhh".
It took quite a while to start with, but got quicker as time went on.

Unfortunately I didn't keep it up, it went by the wayside when she was next teething. I wish I had persevered, it's taken until fairly recently (she's two and a half) to go to sleep without me cuddling her.

[noblegiraffe]

He is 14 weeks old. I've tried patting and shushing - how long is that meant to take? All it did was making him wiggle around and push my hand out of the way looking more and more like it was a game, until I gave up. Then I fed him and he was asleep within minutes.

I don't want to still be cuddling him to sleep when he's 2, I'd hoped that he'd grow out of it, although I can't see how he will. But if I don't force him to sleep, he becomes a howling ball of rage

[throckenholt]

try putting him to bed before you think he is due for a sleep. IME it is harder to get a baby to sleep when it is overtired and it is often not easy to tell they are overtired until it is too late.

At that age max awake at a time is 2 hours - sometimes less.

Another thing is to try white noise - eg out of tune radio - have that on by the cot and see if he settles.

[BornToFolk]

He's still tiny. Please don't worry about it yet. DS had to be rocked to sleep until he was about 5 months old, and then he was able to settle himself.

That's not as bad as it sounds though! In the early weeks I would rock for ages, trying to get him to sleep (in retrospect I wasted loads of time doing this!) but later on, when I got the hang of knowing when he was tired, it would be a quick rock, he'd go to sleep, I'd put him down and that would be it. The we tried putting him down when he was not fully asleep, then just rocking for a minute or so, then no rocking at all and then he could be put down awake and go to sleep himself.

Some sleep cues would probably help, e.g. playing the same piece of music so he associates that with sleep time. Have a routine before naps - with DS this was just nappy change, a story upstairs, drawing the curtains, then I'd sing him the same song while cuddling him, then put him in his cot.

He will grow out of it, I promise.

[lowrib]

My mate reckons the hairdryer worked wonders with her LO. The noise of it that is, not actually blasting the child with it!

I still feed to sleep at 11 months, because it works. A friend of mine just puts her DD in her bed and she sleeps. I was amazed! No idea how they managed that though.

[sjcmum]

Do what works and maintain your sanity! You could always try different places instead of the cot. My DD1 would go to sleep in the pram if you rocked it vigourously or the car seat. This then meant she was used to falling asleep lying down so from about 6 months could do this in her cot. (DD2 totally hopeless though, 11 months and still will only fall asleep in my arms... so I know what it is like)

The baby whisperer ideas may be helpful to you - good tips on looking for sleep cues and the crucial window before they get overtired - like putting them down after the third yawn etc. Try working out roughly how long he can stay awake for - a couple of hours probably max and put him down then. Also the idea of the EASY routine being Eat, Awake, Sleep worked well for DD1 - so they feed when they wake up, rather than using a feed to get them to sleep, if you see what I mean.....

Good luck - but above all don't worry, just as you think you have them figured, they change again.....