glenda - leaving them to it. Shoving a tit in his gob at the first whimper was not helping him. Unless you want to be awake every 45 minutes (their sleep cycle) you need to allow them to learn. Swaddling IMO will not help as their hands are integral to self settling (unless they have a dummy, which I have no experience of) and until a certain age they will just get more angry cos they thump themselves and scratch themselves in their attempts. They will not be able to self settle in the cluster feeding evenings either as they are programmed to not settle.
They need to be put down in a sleepy, but not asleep state. Feeding will result in sleep, but a good winding etc will wake them sufficiently to achieve this. Initially they will cry, and if they need you (hungry, wet, wind etc) it will ramp up. If it is just annoyance, they will have periods of silence before they start again. Most babies will cry for less than five minutes, and this will lessen as they get used to it. If they are overtired they can go on for a long time as they are so pissed off. They will eventually burn themselves out.
I think this is GF type thinking, but I have read that many books I cannot recall exactly. J has learned how to suck his thumb and/or finger this last week, and assumes the position as soon as he is put in his cot or pram. I only use Ewan in the cot as I do not want to have to drag it everywhere in the future.