How long does your baby take to self-settle?

[mistressploppy]

DS is 8.5mo. I was holding him until he was asleep and then laying him down but have gradually been shortening the holding time and now he goes in awake - after a brief cuddle his thumb goes in and I lay him in the cot and leg it. He settles himself but will burble and chat and romp around the cot for up to half an hour before going to sleep. I'm a bit anxious so I pace the floor all this time until he goes quiet!

This is fine at bedtime but for naps it's eating into the day somewhat!

Just wondered how long other people's DC take to settle/go to sleep...

DD is only 7 weeks old but has self-settled from birth I put her in her carrycot awake and she sometimes goes straight to sleep (within a minute) but most often she will look around and listen to the radio that I put on for her for 20 minutes to half an hour. Sometimes she can lie awake (but happy and peaceful) for up to an hour before nodding off.

Not sure how helpful this is given the age of DD but for her it is quite normal to be awake for a while.

Hi Mistressploppy (great name by the way).

Just put my 9 month old DD to bed and she self settles - but it takes about half an hour. She goes down at 7pm and can sometimes keep playing until 7.45pm - though tonight a miracle happened and she played only till 7.15pm.

As for naps - no self settling yet - it's good old mum who lets her fall asleep in my arms and takes about 3 minutes. She's just started at nursery and suspect this will need to change very very soon (she's only been in for settling in periods and luckily they haven't covered a sleep time yet!)

Completely understand about the nap thing though - have tried to get her to self settle before - had success about twice. most of the time she'd just play in her cot instead and it'd take half my day to get her to go to sleep!