What age did your dc self settle?

[Fevrier]

and by that I mean learn to go to sleep easily and without crying.

I have a 7 month old and I have tried getting her to settle in her cot but it takes time and she is frustrated.... I pat, rock cot etc but it's easier just to feed her to almost asleep. Anyway, it all takes me away from my 3 year old so I was wondering what age babies can learn to self settle quickly and then leave my "sleep truining" til then....lazy me but also can't bear crying - sends my blood pressure up and I'm already so knackered by 7pm.....

With my son, he cried for a week for ten minutes with me sitting nxt to him and then after that just went to sleep in his cot on his own (til regressions as a toddler with illness etc). He was 7 months when I did that...

So, what age were your dcs? And how did you do it?

Thanks v much

(not posting in sleep as wanted a broader range of readers!)

DS slept through without help at 5 weeks. We just reduced his night time milk and watered bottles down for a few days until he didn't wake up for it any more.
At one point at about 6 months i had to wake him up as he wasn't putting on enough weight as he was sleeping till 12/1 pm.

I don't think he's typical, but sure as hell want next one to be the same!

Sorry it's not much help.. x

My DD was 9 months old when she eventually managed to settle herself to sleep at night and stopped needing me to get back to sleep if she woke in the night.

I think this was the same time I stopped bf-ing during the night so I think this was the key thing for her. I had tried various things before then with limited success.

DS started to self settle from about 6 weeks. I always put him down awake and would just sit and stroke his head if he cried, if he didn't I would leave the room. He slept well until about 7 months when he got separation anxiety and would become hysterical if I left the room, I've co-slept on and off since then. His separation anxiety is much better now so we have been trying to get him back in his cot. He self settled again for the first time in ages tonight and is 13 months!

around 9 months, we did cc

Long time ago and times have changed but my 2 settled in their own rooms from about 6 weeks and slept for 12 hours from10 weeks and 12 weeks weeks. They were both big babies though and were ff.

When my DS was about 7 weeks old I could not work out how to settle him at bedtime unless I breastfed him to sleep. One night I was really, really tired and he woke up when I put him in his cot. Out of sheer knackeredness i left him awake in his cot for a couple of minutes while I sat on the top step to think about what else I could try, even thinking about going for a drive to settle him. I went back in to get him... and he was fast asleep. Turns out I'd been keeping him awake ?.

Learn to go to sleep easily and without crying... from very early on, because I have always fed to sleep.

Settling completely alone, he still doesn't do and he is 3.5, but he will go back to sleep by himself if he wakes in the night.

IMO the best thing to do is to find a way to settle quickly and easily even if it requires you there, and then wait until they grow out of it. I don't think they are really wired to fall asleep alone when they are little.

(Unless he is ill/hurt/had a nightmare/needs a wee, on my second paragraph)

9 months. Until then I had rocked her to sleep. At 9 months she was going to sleep much quicker so I tried putting her in her cot and sitting in the room in the dark to see what would happen. She wriggled around for a bit then went to sleep by herself. Within a few days she would settle without me in the room. We had no fuss, no crying and lost no sleep. I was amazed.

Thanks all.

I have a feeling 9 months is a good age! But maybe I'm just postponing action. I either need to face the crying consistently every evening or keep on muddlin thru.

My son was definitely 7 months (prob nearer 8) when he would peacefully settle in the dark with no fuss......

Bizarrely, from day 1. We would swaddle him, place him in moses basket, turn off light and walk away. His eyes would be wide open. Not a peep. A couple of mins later I would peep my head around the door and he had dozed off. He would wake without crying, we would just hear rustiling and snorting on the monitor.

Now, at 19 months, he sleeps like a dream. Just put him down for a two hour nap. He walks to the nursery and points to the cot around 12.30!

But! My DS is on the go from the milisecond he wakes to the milisecond he goes to sleep. No wonder he loves sleep so much, he is a ball of energy and even when a newborn he was astonishingly alert. Exhausting doesn't cover it!

Sounds like you were lucky bbface as both mine have been super alert and so unable to wind down! Or maybe I haven't given them a chance at the right age to settle themselves....... Eek. Wish I wasn't thinking about it so much. Just need to crack it I think.