How to help baby self settle

[RubyWooRose]

Does anyone have any tips to get a 6 month old to settle herself to sleep or am I being unrealistic?

My daughter needs to be rocked to sleep for naps and if I put her in her cot she will wake up soon after, so I've been contact napping to ensure she gets enough sleep. This is obviously difficult when I'm out with her as she won't sleep on her own, so she just gets overtired and grumpy.

She is better at night. Once I've initially rocked to her sleep, she will go in her cot and sleep for 4 to 5 hours before waking for her bottle and back down in her cot without help.

I'm just concerned she isn't getting enough daytime sleep, and she is getting heavy, so harder to rock to sleep.

Any help would be great!

I think it's too young for babies to "learn" that. They either do it naturally (a minority) or they don't.

My ds is also getting too heavy to rock. He likes having his tummy or back patted and rubbed to sleep instead, so you could try that. That's the go-to technique they use at my dc's nursery.

@Mumoftwo1316 I will try that thank you.

I was still just doing naps in the sling or pram at that stage. If I did manage a cot nap, I had to always transfer them whilst asleep and that was closer to 9 months. Neither of mine went to sleep by themselves until they were about 2/2.5 but they got there in the end despite being fed/rocked to sleep for every sleep 😊

My son was exactly like this! I think it's a developmental thing rather than something you can teach :(

I remember the work I put in to help my older child learn how to fall asleep by himself in the cot instead of being rocked to sleep. Life was much easier for me when he could do it. Either way he would only nap for one sleep cycle (c. 40 minutes) and wake.

With my younger child (now 7 months), she may wake after one sleep cycle but can fall asleep again. So her naps are anything between 30 minutes to 2.5 hours.

You can definitely teach some babies.

I did the pick up/put down method which worked really well but it did take a bit of consistency and patience.