Do you put baby down awake or asleep?

[ecossegirl91]

Just that really!
we have an almost 5m old who’s sleep used to be great (thank you sleep regression haha to be fair his sleep isn’t as bad as some so not complaining). Currently we put him down asleep around half 7 and then we resettle as and when required. Sometimes there is no need to resettle/pop dummy back in and sometimes it takes 2/3 times and then he’s down for a good 5-6 hour stretch.

do other people put babies down awake or asleep at this age?

also, prior to the regression he would go down at 7.30 and basically sleep till 3/4am, need a quick resettle/dummy then sleep till 6.30 but now he wakes up every night at 1am and cannot be resettled - 2 hours can go by and he’s still awake in the next to me. If I pick up he falls asleep in my arms but awakes immediately when popped back down, we bring him in the bed and he falls asleep immediately but then reawakens as soon as back in the cot! 🙈 so we have resorted to bed sharing from 1am till morning which isn’t ideal as we didn’t want to do it but no other way to get him back to sleep! It’s strange how quick he falls asleep when in arms/in bed but is not having it in the cot! Any tips!?

I'm in the same boat as you but my ds is only 3 months old and to be honest with you I just go with the flow and think to my self it's not going to be for ever bed sharing ain't the best but u have to do what you can to get some sleep

I agree go with the flow. With DD I sort of knew when she needed to be cuddled and when she was happy to be put down and kick about, I would wind the mobile up for her to look at. Then pop back and she would be asleep!

I was going through the exact same as you but it got progressively worse up until 6.5 months and eventually DD was waking every hour needing to be held. I read 'precious little sleep' which went into the 'science' behind baby sleep etc and helped me understand what was going on. 2 weeks later I'm putting DD down in her cot awake and she is sleeping through 7.15-6.30.

Just to add I went with the flow for as long as I could but the sleep deprivation got too much so I had to sort it out!

Always awake, as I found they could put themselves back to sleep more easily if they had gone to sleep on their own

At that age i put them down asleep.
Then i started stopping the rocking and shushing andfeom about 10 m put th down sort of asleep (calm relaxed and sleepy) and tucked them in.
It was a gradual transition i think.

Always cuddled to sleep then put down veeerrrry carefully and thankfully he usually stayed asleep. He was so fidgety he'd never fall asleep on his own. I figured it wasn't forever.

At about 2.5 he jumped out of my arms one evening and into bed 🤷 though he still likes a cuddle to sleep sometimes now age 4.

i put mine down awake. The idea is that if they wake briefly between sleep cycles it is easier to self settle if they are in the same conditions they fell asleep in - eg in their cot, with white noise. However she is in the 4 month regression too so this theory doesn’t work sometimes - it’s 50/50 lol.

Always awake to encourage self settling. He's 3 months and it's worked well for us so far, we used the pick up/put down method to get him used to his moses basket and then his cot and now he sleeps 7-6/7.

I'm dreading the 4 month sleep regression. 😂

1st born- asleep
2nd born-awake

1st used to cry more, sleep less, would wake crying if we werent there.

2nd slept much better and would happily lie in his cot and babble to himself, never cry and would settle himself.

They're all different.

Mine are grown now but I always tried to put them down while awake from as early as possible.

Same age baby, put down awake about 7/8ish, resettle if needed. He wakes up at 1am for a bottle of milk, then back down to bed until 7am-ish.

If your baby is waking at 1am, and its taking so long to settle, i would just do a small 3 or 4 oz bottle to send them back to sleep, 5 months is still very young to have no milk overnight

Depends on the baby! DD didn’t develop the “drowsy but awake” setting until she was 2.5yo. We used to put her down asleep the way you would put down an unexploded bomb in a stadium full of people. DS can be jostled a little bit as he goes down and he opens one beady eye, sees he’s in his crib, and sort of grunts his acquiescence and dozes back off. They’re born sleepers or not sleepers, and that’s it, imo.

@caligirlinldn thank you for the recommendation I’m charging my kindle now! My little boy has just turned 6 months and I’m running on empty. We go away mid April so thinking of ‘trying something’ on our return. He must need sleep as much as I do and he’s constantly grizzly.

How did you find doing it?

Sorry to derail the thread OP x

Awake. Have done since day 0 for all 3 of my children. The art of self-settling is the secret to good sleepers.