Falling asleep on own

[tryinghardest]

Any advice on how to encourage my 4 month old to fall asleep by himself... He always needs to be rocked and it's clearly disturbing his sleep when he's eventually put down in his cot.

What happens if instead of rocking you put him down in the cot and pat his tummy?

He'll be OK for a minute or so and then he'll cry 🤷‍♀️

Sleep is developmental. He's just too young at the moment to be able to do it, there's not really much you can do other than wait.

Does he have a dummy? Do you use white noise? I would just keep trying to put down awake, allow baby to fuss/cry a little bit if he is distressed then pick up comfort and rock to sleep.

I've tried him with a dummy the past few days to see if it'll help, which is does at naptimes but not in the night. White noise on all the time when he sleeps.

With my 4 month old I put him down, and put my hand on his chest. If he's a bit fussy or his arms are wailing around a lot then I'll hold his hands whilst he's laid in his cot - it seems to calm him down instantly. We also have a white noise machine or lullabies that play and he has a dummy (for daytime naps) And if he's really tired but struggling to sleep still then I'll gently stroke down from his forehead to the bridge of his nose - if he's sleepy enough he can't keep his eyes open, although if he's not sleep this doesn't work at all.

It works for us, he will happily go down and fall asleep in his own bed. Not sure though if that's because of what we do or whether it's just his nature - he's never been one to cry at being put down.