Fess up.... Does anyone actually have a young baby that they can put down awake and goes to sleep on it's own?

[cherub59]

Am on ds3 and none of them settled to sleep in their own till nearer 8 months.....
Being exhausted with ds3 who is currently I'll and therefore particularly deserving of bf to sleep am wondering if anyone actually has that mystical creature of the self settling baby and what have I done wrong?

I stongly don't believe in cc so am not going that route!

My ds did, from 9 weeks old, he is 18mo now.

Of course, dd is 4yo and has NEVER slept through, so don't hate me.

My DS is 9 weeks and about two weeks ago started to self settle. He sleeps on his tummy and is bf - although he gets a ff top up for his dream feed.

We were rocking & feeding to sleep up until a couple of weeks ago - my back was in agony and I was in ribbons. A weekend at my mum's saw me leaving with him self settling. She made me leave him shouting after he'd been fed, burped, pooed etc (note: very diff to crying IMO) and he dropped off in about 10 mins? Key for me has been to catch him when he's tired & not over tired. And not feeding him to sleep when possible. It sometimes happens for night feed, but I try not to make a habit of it. Leaving him that first time gave me the confidence to try it more at home and now two weeks on it's going well.

I'm not saying he manages it every time. But 8/10 sleeps he's able to get himself off. For naps I watch for the yawns, then take him to bedroom, give him a cuddle and sing same song (poor kid!). When he starts to yawn some more, rub eyes, get heavy etc, I put him down.

If after ten mins he's getting upset vs. shouting/grumbling, I'll go and give him a shush pat. And then pick up and cuddle if he still isn't going off.

Although some think it's b*llocks about sleep cues, I really think my LO has responded to it. Bath at night etc. And sometimes when we're out it's all a bit skew-wiff, but I'm now starting to see a pattern emerge with his naps.

I'm realistic and don't expect it to last...but I am feeling happy that we've managed to crack it once. So hopefully when he starts to be a monkey at the 16 week mark I'll be poised and ready to try and get him sorted.

My ds has been able to do this for naps and bedtime since he was about 6 months old. He didn't sleep through until 8 months though and currently thinks 4am is waking up time.

Mine did, but in order for this to happen, you really do need to allow a tiny bit of crying. Just a few minutes. If the cries are not escalating and getting louder/more panicky - then give them a chance to get off to sleep by themselves. You can sssssshhhhhh sssssshhhhhhh quite loudly and pat gently. We had a rocking crib rather than a moses basket, which was very effective.

Mine did, first from about 4 months and second and third from about 3 months... * goes off to polish halo**

Have to say though, they have all been crap eaters.

You win some, you lose some!

Yes - mine did from the night we bought him home from hospital (7 days old) - he was put to bed at 7pm - I closed the door and left him, - I had never heard of all this patting/rocking etc to sleep ! He has never had a problem going to bed - now aged 10 !

DS was pretty good at self settling, in phases obviously, he went through weeks of being a bad sleeper every so often, but I'd label him as a 'good sleeper'.
He was a chilled out baby. Never tried to climb out of windows or chew on carving knives etc either.

Like to think this was because of something we did, and that we will do the same when DC2 arrives... but in reality I suspect it was luck, pure and simple!!

ds used to but only from about the age of 15 months when he stopped falling asleep on the boob. Then we were obssessive users of his musical light projector which is still called in to action now he's 3.9!

Dd (18 months) has never ever gone down awake with me. She resolutely refuses, however she will with dh, so he puts her to bed every night :o

ds1, yep.

ds2, ha ha ha! still fed to sleep at 13mths. did nothjing different.

Ds1 yes. Ds2 no bloody chance.

My new one (4 weeks) does, bu t her older sister, who was 8 weeks prem was a nightmare. Now though, at 2, she loves her sleeps and is no trouble (in that department).

My DTDs did, from 2 or 3 weeks. Slept through at 10 weeks too and are still brilliant sleepers (5 yesterday) I put it down to:

1. They were always put to bed together, and were therefore never alone. They made snuffly noises (bloody irritating) which, presumably, comforted them.
2. The midwife suggested putting a loudly ticking clock in with them. We did. It seemed to work.

Not much use, though, OP, as I'm mostly convinced it wad the twin thing what did it.

DD1- self settled but only after 10 minutes or so of crying, this from about 3mo when I got sick of pushing the bloody pushchair round the bloody garden.

DD2- from about 6 weeks- but like others, she is a thumb sucker and that really helped. However if she starts crying I know she won't go off, like delia's DD she has to be drowsy tired not frantic tired. Whereas DD1 had to have a bit of a yell to settle down.

my sister's first baby self settled
even at 4 weeks, you could pop him in the cot, and without so much as a whimper, he'd turn his little head to the side and nod straight off.
it was quite a marvel to behold. her second didn't though

dd1 only self-settled after a little controlled crying at 6mo
dd2 is 8mo, and still needs to be rocked to sleep, but as she sleeps 7-5.30 and naps well i can't be arsed to change anything.

I'm currently lying next to my 20 week old DS who will only feed to sleep and will only stay asleep if I'm either holding him or lying next to him. It's driving me mad! DP has tried to settle him in the evening but DS just screams and I can't bear it. I keep telling myself that this won't last forever.

Nope - DS is nine months old and nowhere near.

My daughter did thankfully because if I rocked her to sleep she woke up the second she hit the moses basket. In general she is very independent!

My DC2 is like that, has been since around 5/6 weeks. One day I was cuddling him to sleep and he wouldn't stop crying, I put him in his basket and he turned over and went to sleep. He's 13 months now and still hates people being around him if he's trying to get to sleep. DC1 had to be rocked to sleep until she was about 14 months. We didn't do anything differently, it's just the way he is. Odd, since generally he is much more cuddly but not at bedtime.

DS1 was horrendous, for a very long period of time. It was taking upwards of around 2 hours every night to get him to sleep, or even to just settle. I'll freely admit that looking back on it most of it was our own fault (but he was the first, the experimental model )

With DS2 and DD I made sure that once they started showing night/day sleep patterns we started putting them down awake (sitting where they could see us, and drinking coffee and reading a book to pass the time - relaxing really) Not controlled crying as they were happy to lay there, but not cuddling to sleep. By around 9/10 weeks I could put them down and leave.

HOWEVER... being very good at being put down didn't solve the other main sleeping issue my DCs all had, which is refusing point blank to sleep through until 18mth/2years. They all did that, it was just slightly easier to deal with when they went down easily to start with and I got a good period of time before they woke again. Going down easily in the evening sadly did not translate to going back to sleep at 2am!

My DD (5 months) can go to sleep for the night after a feed but daytime naps I have to rock her with a dummy (hate that word..Soother? American..any others?). I'm really hoping when I have the guts to do CC on her (poor unwitting thing), I'll be able to get rid of the dummy. Anyone else do this?