How do you put your 9m old / baby to bed to get to sleep on own??

[Kitcatkor]

We are trying to gently sleep train or 9m old but atm he is bf to drowsy before sleeps. Should I break the association between feed to drowsy? I don't understand how you get them drowsy enough to put in cot otherwise? How did you get to stage of putting down awake and they sleep without fussing first? Is 9m too young?

I started putting my baby down awake around 5 months. If she fell asleep on the bottle, she’d wake up being burped so was easy to put her down awake. We used to use a dummy but took that away at bed time not long after as she was waking looking for it through the night. She just adjusted! I think we have been really lucky to be honest? She just seems to like her bed!

Maybe just try it one night and see what happens?

Im sure others will be along with better / more experienced advice x

I too am interested in these answers . My 9 month old is still fed to sleep at night. It works really well and makes my life easy but I know I can’t do it forever

Honestly I think some babies can just naturally self settle and others need help. A few sleep experts I follow (Lyndsey Hookway, Kathryn Stagg for example) say that putting them down "drowsy but awake" isn't a thing. Most babies need help falling to sleep and feeding to sleep is perfectly fine and natural (unless it's an issue for you).
My ds always needed help and my dd I can pop in cot awake and she drifts off herself. I've done nothing different and ebf both.

Most babies need support to sleep. If they don't then you've been very lucky, although the ability to self settle doesn't necessary mean they won't still wake in the night and need you.

They either learn how to sleep independently in their own time, or you can sleep train. Drowsy but awake is bollocks IMO, a made up concept by the sleep training industry to convince you you've failed and therefore must need a consultation ($$$).

Having read a lot on the issue of baby sleep I don't intend to sleep train mine. As PP said, Lyndsey Hookway is a good person to follow on social media for resources on biologically normal infant sleep. Also Hey Sleepy Baby.

Following out of interest. I have a 9 month old who really fights going to sleep and there's no way he'd go down drowsy and just fall asleep without a huge amount of angry crying, and I don't want to do cry it out.

At 9 months I put baby down in the cot asleep. By about 10/11 months I could put her down drowsy and she fiddled with a dummy in her hand and went off to sleep. 12 months we just put her in wide awake and she falls asleep on her own.

If they're fighting sleep do you know that they are definitely tired enough?

@Calphurnia88 he is showing signs of being sleepy - rubbing his eyes etc and if he's feeding I can see him drifting off but it's like he can't let go and then he tries to sit up, but then wants to be feeding again, like he can't work out what he wants and he gets upset. He's started pinching my chest I think because it helps him relax but I have to stop him because it's quite painful! We've tried moving bedtime around, sometimes he eventually goes to sleep at 9.30 or 10.30pm, other times 7.30 or 8.30. He always cries no matter when he eventually goes to sleep in the evening. He pretty much always has to feed or be rocked/carried to sleep in the evenings after a big cry.