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self settling

5 replies

mcflumpy · 03/09/2009 22:23

trying to help my 12 week old to self settle to sleep, I know we should have done it by now but for whatever reason we haven't.
Does anyone have any tips to help her adjust to this change? She is sometimes able to do this for afternoon naps, but not for big night time sleep.

Thanks.

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ches · 04/09/2009 01:37

She's FAR too young to be worrying about this now.

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Bleatblurt · 04/09/2009 02:13

Nooooooooooooo, keeping cuddling her to sleep while you can! [broody]

Sorry, am no help. Agree with ches.

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mcflumpy · 04/09/2009 09:07

excellent, that's what I wanted to hear really. we love cuddles....

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JJ1471 · 04/09/2009 09:07

We rocked ds to sleep until he was 12 weeks old or so, which was fine, but then he started to get bigger and it also became more difficult, it could take up to an hour. Then the feeding to sleep during the night stopped working, and we had about a week of spending 2 hours at 2am marching up and down with him trying to get him to sleep. It wasn't much fun!

We took an approach which the other posters would probably think was far too harsh, but we needed to for our sanity, and it did work. We settled him in his cot and then left him for a minute or so at a time, returning, comforting him and then leaving again. If he was really upset then I'd stay with him, sitting by the cot and patting him. It was hard work and took several weeks, but he was never left alone crying for very long and since then he can take himself off to sleep at night and for naps, usually with no fuss whatsoever.

It's not for everyone, but that is my experience. He also took much less time to settle himself in the cot than he did when we were walking around with him (and he was often crying while we rocked him anyway, because he would really fight sleep).

Hope that helps,
Jen

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mcflumpy · 04/09/2009 19:02

that's interesting Jen, the reason I posted is because our nightime put down routine takes about 30-40 miuntes and like you say, our DD is getting heavier. She is always put down asleep for her big night time sleep and I know we can't sustain this into the distant future. We love cuddles and our DD loves cuddles, but I know at some point soon, we can't carry her about or rock her to sleep. We'll continue for the moment, but what you've described above is what I do for her 2 hour nap after the big sleep, mostly because I'm tired and also need a nap. She is in her moses basket next to me and I just put my arm in and pat her and she drifts off after about 15 minutes. think as long as she knows I'm there, she's OK. It doesn't work at night, but does for naps.

Thanks again.