What do you do to get your LO to sleep? (Rocking, BF, shush patting etc)

[BobbieSox]

I'm all out of ideas! I always BFd my DD to sleep, maybe not ideal but it always worked.

Now my 14 week old DS is a different story - he finds breastfeeding totally unrelaxing and will only feed to sleep if he is half asleep anyway, in the middle of the night.

I've tried giving him a bottle of expressed milk before bed, which was less angst ridden than breastfeeding tends to be, but still left him wide awake...he hates being rocked.

Sometimes he has a dummy although he can't keep it in his mouth for more than a few seconds, so this only works if I stick a muslin over his head and he's contained so his arms can't knock it out...

Basically the only way I can reliably get him to sleep is by pushing him back nd forth in the pram, combined with the dummy and cloth over the head technque as outlined above...I once managed to shush pat him to sleep but only after he'd already been asleep in the car.

Is there anything else I can try? Any suggestions welcome!

Do you think on of these would work to keep the dummy in?

neither of my dds ever fed to sleep
have you tried just chucking him in the cot and letting him self-settle? it's probably waaaay too early, but dd1 was like this. I think it was about 14 weeks when they found their fingers as well, so he might settle better once he can do this.

(dd2 however, was not, and is still slowly and laboriously rocked to sleep at 14mo )

DS2 wasn't a nurse-to-sleeper. DH used ot pop him int he sling and jsut carry him while I got DS1 to sleep. Could something like that be possible for you?

Oh, it's a right PITA when they don't feed to sleep, isn't it? DS didn't from 3 months to about 8 months. But I feed him to sleep every night now (at 14 months ). He's rocked/cuddled to sleep for naps. Can't self-settle yet

As a young baby he was a right bugger very tricky to get to sleep. We used to have to swaddle him really tight and rock him in front of a detuned radio. White noise really used to send him off (after a fair amount of screaming).

As a young baby my DS was also very difficult to get to sleep. He would change instantly from happy smily baby to screaming overtired baby & only way to settle him was swaddling him to stop his arms flailing, put the dummy in & cuddle him to sleep. When he was about 3months I realised what I was setting myself up for, bc I couldnt get him to sleep unless I cuddled him. So I decided to work on putting him down for naps in the cot & used ssshh/pat instead. It took about a full week of screaming at naptimes (bc he wanted cuddles) before he started to accept the new method, & since then we have never had to help him go to sleep. We just do our nap/BT routine, take him up, pop him in bed, say night night & leave & he does the rest himself.

Admittedly, this has probably gone the other way now bc he doesnt sleep well anywhere except his cot these days (he's 16months), but TBH I'd rather he took a solid 2hr nap in his cot every day & enjoy my 'me' time than him have 10mins snooze on the floor/in the pushchair bc he passed out.

Thanks for the replies - had to go and push the pram for a bit as he woke up!

smackapakkaa thanks for the link, I think he's a bit young at the moment but have saved the page for when he's older.

charlotte I'm hoping he will find his fingers, he has found his hands but nothing more...however his sister is a committed thumbsucker, bit of a double edged sword!

WoTmania he does like the sling actually, I might try that, although not sure about the transition into bed part, what do you do then?

CountBapula thanks for the sympathy! Here's hoping I might be able to finally BF him to sleep at some point in the future...

omama I was hoping the shush pat thing would work...I've just re-read how to do it online and it says you have to prop them on their side?! Do you do that?

Thanks for advice, anything else I could do? He's asleep in our kitchen at the moment

We cosleep so with the younger two they've gone from our bed to their own bed (we tried a cot briefly with DS2 but he climbed out, even with a sleeping bag on at 21 months).
Some of my friends have had success with no cry sleep solution once their babies are a little older.

DS has been a real shock because he will only bf to sleep sometimes. DD bf for comfort, when hungry, when cold, bored, tired etc. DS feeds for hunger only, extremely efficiently and will scream blue bloody muder if offered the breast at any other time. He has found his own way to settle. He lies on his right side, left arm tucked up by his head and right hand clutching my right thumb. He has to be able to look at my face as he nods off. He's a little oddball.

Two of mine have been complete swaddle addicts and were still in strait jackets at this age, and for quite a while after - Ds2 was 7 months when we got him out of the swaddle, DTS is 5 1/2 months and still going strong.

DTS usually feeds to sleep, but on the odd ocasions he won't, we swaddle him then swing him round in a violent fashion in our arms - you have to really go for it, but it works. Once he's asleep he's putdownable as long as he's swaddled.

Or do you mean once they are asleep? I think DH used to wait til he was completely asleep then untie him and pop him in our bed.

While my DH pushes the baby in the pram I came back to look for more ideas! ShowofHands that's the same as my DS, he will only eat if properly hungry and just shouts at my boob if I offer it at any other time...hope he wil find his own way soon, how did your method come about?

I had some success with swaddling early on but he is just too strong to keep in it, unless I'm doing it wrong...also when I see him asleep he likes to be like a starfish, so wonder if I'm fighting what he wants to do naturally, IYSWIM?

Thanks for all suggestions - after tonights effort ( gave up and turned to the pram after 45 mins of patting, rocking, BFing) think will try and get him sleep in the sling then put him down...never going to work!

Hopefully the sling thing will help. DS1 would nurse to sleep and wake the moment I tried to put him down but never liked cuddles whereas DS2 always liked (and still does) cuddles but never nursed to sleep and seemed to feed purely for food (until he was over a year anyway, still didn't nurse to sleep but nursing definitely became a comfort/touching base type thing). DD is a mixture: nurses to sleep and likes cuddles

Mine started sleeping well when she managed to turn on her tummy (around 3 months) and was left to sleep like that. There are some interesting discussions about cot death linked to tummy sleeping - many say that they are unproven but you have to make up your own mind so you are not lying awake with worry!