Putting them down 'sleepy but awake' -how???

[pinkgirlythoughts]

I know that putting a baby in his cot sleepy, but not actually asleep, is supposed to be the best way to help them learn good sleep habits, but how exactly do you do this? DS is almost 5 months, and at bedtime is either fed/rocked to sleep, dead to the world, or absolutely wide awake- he has no middle ground! When I put him in the cot asleep, he wakes up and panics, but when I put him in awake, he screams hysterically!

How have others managed to do it successfully?

When I take DS to bed I have the lamp on dim, hes wide awake.

I give him a quick clean, change his nappy and put his PJs on (hes 5 months too :) ) all whilst queitly singing 'Peter Rabbit has a fly upon his nose'

I get his grow bag on and feed him, wind him.

I then have a few mins cuddle still singing softly, then I lie him in hi cot.

He HAD a moble above his cot but it was loud and too 'exciting'

I got a fab little thing that hangs on the cot and plays classical music for about 5 minutes and has a green nightlight on.

I turn the lamp off.

And by the time the music ends he is always asleep :)

Somewhere between about 5-7 months we started doing a mix of pick-up/put-down and ssh-patting ds in his cot (before that he either fed to sleep or fell asleep in the pram/sling).

I'd put him down sleepy on his side and then pat his bottom and ssh past his ear. If he cried I'd pick him up and soothe him but as soon as he stopped crying and looked sleepy again I'd put him down and ssh-pat again. By 7 months sometimes he could go into his cot awake and self-settle without help, but probably half the time I'd ssh-pat him. By 9 months he went in awake and self-settled (without crying) about 90% of the time.

It was a slow, gentle process really but controlled crying didn't suit either of us. I know lots of people advocate just putting the baby down and letting them cry themselves to sleep for 5-10 minutes but ds just got distressed and it didn't feel right to me.

Btw i have stuc to this and its an achievement for me as my other 3 have all co-slept with us!

i think it depends on the baby, for some it works, others it doesnt!

for my first three they had to be lying in bed with me and feed to sleep and then i had ds4 who had to be put down awake and would just suck his thumb and go to sleep on his own! a total revelation to me!

dd baby no 5, was a mix, but now we swaddle her, and cuddle her and then lay her down and give her her dummy and she goes off on her own, or sometimes i lay with her, but she doesnt need cuddles in bed.

pick up put down is a good method once they are over 6mths ish i think, its a slow process but it does work and they arent being abandoned.

i think it really does depend on the baby, you will find a technique that works for you, or if your baby is one that needs you to cuddle them to sleep etc, they WILL grow out of it eventually, well mine did :)

4mad, my 4th does that too, after 3 who just wanted to be cuddled he gets stressed unless hes put, alone, in his cot and sucks his thumb to sleep.

I was gobsmacked when I realised thats what he wanted!

this is the music thing, btw, they do it in blue too, was £8 instore though!

same here ninja, we had to start putting him upstairs in bed at about 3mths or he got wound up, all the others at that age would only sleep on my lap in the evenings, it was very odd!

I only managed this by accident after 12 months of DS feeding to sleep. I think it just took him a while to work out it was nice to go to sleep, and now I can put him down awake but sleepy and he just settles down, so I wouldn't worry that you haven't mastered it yet!