When did your little one go to sleep independently?

[12weeker]

There’s so much conflicting info out there, and so much of it says in order for your baby to get to sleep independently (ie not fed to sleep / rocked etc) you basically have to leave them to cry a bit. Yet I’ve heard stories of mums who haven’t done much, just waited it out and their babies ended up getting to sleep independently. So just wanted to know…

1. when did your little one go to sleep independently?
2. Did you do anything in order to get them to do this?
3. if so how long did it take and what did you do?

my son is such an extreme crier I couldn’t just leave him crying even for 2 mins, so it isn’t really an option for me I don’t think anyway!

Around 5 months - never did leave to cry as used the no sleep no cry method with my first
I don't judge people for doing it but I personally can't bear the noise as it distress me
So I pick up if they need a cuddle
She is now 16 months and goes to bed a dream and sleep 11-13 hrs ish

6 weeks. Just swaddled her lightly and put her down. In the lie flat pram in the hall or garden if it’s was nice, cot or Moses basket at night. Cried for a minute and then slept then onwards when put down from that day really unless she was ill. She slept really well her whole life. I just didn’t overthink it or get myself in a rut of rocking etc. easy routine of bath, boob/bottle then bed at night.

5 years old before I could leave my youngest to fall asleep at night 🙈 we bought her a toniebox for her birthday and that did the trick. Prior to that she just could not fall asleep alone. Wish we'd thought of audio books or something sooner!
To be fair though I always chose the path of least resistance and she was always breastfed to sleep or napped during walks as a baby/toddler so that may have had an impact.

With my eldest I was a single parent and tried all sorts of sleep training techniques and just felt in hindsight that it caused a lot of stress and bother. And didn't really work that well for us. There's a bit of an age gap so my eldest is a night owl teenager now but if I compare them at the same age their sleep is really no different. I think it just comes down to who they are.

Op my Dc was like yours. Acted as if been abandoned if I even thought about putting her down. Always fed to sleep. In the end I accepted that that was what she was like,
and it all worked out.

to answer your qs:

when did your little one go to sleep independently? Around twelve months something clicked with her. She now understood what sleep was. We could say shhh sleep and she’d put her head down .
Did you do anything in order to get them to do this? Not really! We just tried tapping her bum and lying her on her front at a year when we were confident she understand what sleep was.
if so how long did it take and what did you do? One night. No crying. She was ready! She started sleeping through around a. Year too.

i found the acceptance helped me at the time when I felt everyone else’s baby was sleeping independently. I’m now so glad I let my Dc sleep alone when she was ready.

Of course if you are really struggling with lack of sleep etc you may need to go something else.

Around 6 months after sleep training.

Though there have been painful regressions every so often, generally it could be much worse and she sleeps through the night so can't complain.

18 months 😅 I had to do sleep training though because Dd was a bf to sleep baby and that was vvvvvv difficult to break the habit.

Eldest was 5+ years, youngest 18 months
No difference in parenting.
It’s pot luck IMO!

About 26 months when stopped BF so it was a natural thing. I was in no rush, it wasn’t something I think is important. Babies aren’t meant to be alone, why should they sleep alone. I think the preoccupation with it, especially when from adults that won’t sleep alone themselves is absolutely batshit.

He was about 3 weeks old. I used the pick up put down method which helped him learn how to self soothe and put him down awake every time from birth.

He responded very well to it.

Still lay next to him now, 5 in January 😂 will be taking the plunge soon as due my second in April

Still lay next to him now, 5 in January 😂 will be taking the plunge soon as due my second in April

9 months after sleep training

He's always gpne to sleep on his own for naps, but bedtime was probably about 5 months when we started some sleep training, leaving him for a couple of mins each time to give him a chance to settle

My 7 month old, often falls to sleep feeding, but the last maybe 6 weeks I've moved her to her cot in a not super gentle way, so she does wake up, in the hope she learns to fall asleep independently. Its kind of worked, in as much as with dummy and me laying on my bed by her (next2me cot), she will usually fall asleep after 5mins. However, I rock her to sleep for naps. She's slept through prob 6 of the last 9 nights tho.

My almost 2 year old wont fall asleep independently. Sometimes dad's in her room and hour. But, she's slept through 90% of the time from 14 months.

Some time between about 13 and 18 months, I think.

We tried various sleep training methods when he was a baby and it was just miserable and none of them worked. We co-slept a lot. Then we started putting him down for the night in his own cot and bringing him in with us the first time we woke up after we'd gone to bed, so for quite a while he was spending maybe 3 hours in his cot and the rest of the night in our bed.

I got pregnant again when he was 13 months old and we knew we couldn't have two babies sleeping in our bed so we started making more of an effort to get him to stay in his own bed all through the night and after a while he got the hang of it.

For quite a long time one of us would have to sit with him until he fell asleep which could be anything up to 45 minutes but eventually he got more comfortable with it all and now my husband puts him in his bed and stays with him for a couple of minutes and that's it.

We now cosleep with his sister and are at the stage of putting her in the cot for the beginning of the night and then bringing her in with us later on. I'm hoping we'll get her sleeping through the night in the next 6 months or so and then once she's night weaned we'll try and put them in the same room so we can have our bedroom back.

At about 5 months. All the way through to aged 4 and now suddenly she won't sleep without me 🫠

My oldest is 3 and we still lay next to him to go to sleep. I’m sure he’ll get there in his own time, no rush. Youngest is 10 months and is fed or cuddled to sleep.

Can you tell me what you did at 18 months please? 14 month old is fed to sleep. Wakes 3+ times a night wanting to be breastfed back to sleep. Exhausted and fed up!

3y3m still needs a cuddle
I'm 35 still prefer a cuddle to get to sleep. As a teenager I used imagine being cuddled by my deceased sister or great grandfather to get to sleep. It makes me feel pretty sad that this is probably more socially acceptable than a teenager asking their mum to have a cuddle before sleep. I think some times we have unrealistic expectations on baby's.

My friend has two girls and they both slept for 12h a night from 6 weeks with minimal assistance. My dad was 8 weeks old when he left hospital and was 36weeks gestation corrected. He slept through from the day he got home from hospital without help. My nan was meant to wake him for feeds but she only believed on waking a child if they had a nap and was quite regimented with that. I also know lots of children that didn't sleep and lots in between too!

It's also not always linear. DD2 could self settle at a couple months old (at night, she hated naps as she's had major FOMO since birth). It was amazing, I could feed her, pop her back in her next to me, and she'd just drift off. And then sometime around 4 or 5 months that stopped, no chance of popping her down awake without major crying.

I try to gently encourage mine to drift off on their own, so I will put them down awake, or lie them next to me awake, pat, sing, etc. and then gradually step back but I go at their pace and don't worry too much about steps backwards due to bad dreams, teething, illness, etc. I do co-sleep after the first post-my-bedtime wake, though, which keeps me functioning.

From birth with both of them. I just always put them down after a feed, very drowsy but still awake.
They were swaddled for the first few months which I think helped a lot. It made them feel like they were being held. Sometimes they grizzled a little when I put them down but I'd gently jiggle the Moses basket around a bit and they'd fall asleep.

When I taught them both to