How do you teach a 10 week old to self settle to sleep??

[waffles1]

Please can anyone share their experiences in teaching their babies to self settle to sleep? My dd is 10 weeks old and i'm keen to teach her to self settle for naptimes and bedtimes but have no idea how to do this without leaving her to cry. I currently rock her to sleep but don't want to keep this up for too much longer as i made this mistake first time round with dc and it was the hardest habit to break and i really believe this contributed to my pnd, at some points i was having to go into ds bedroom upto 8 times per night to rock him back to sleep.
So looking for advice on how to teach dd to self soothe without resorting to crying, thanks mn's!

Mine has never been able to self settle - even now at 19 months. Like you, I don't want to leave them to cry.

At least it won't last forever.....

That wasn't very helpful, was it?

Ha not overly ;-) but thanks for replying!
True it won't last forever but I'm keen to give some suggestions a try.

It was a very gradual process for us but ds now 29wks self-settles at bedtime most of the time. Started by having a really solid bedtime routine, literally did the same things the same time every day for weeks, this now primes him for sleep even if I miss bits out. Then the basic principle is to gradually do less of whatever you are doing, so tone down the rocking until she is just going to sleep in your arms, then being put down pretty much asleep with your arms around her, then put down awake but very drowsy etc etc. I actually ended up finding it easier to just experiment with finding ways to settle him in the cot as the transfer from arms to cot never went well, I eventually found just putting my face against his worked! I would pick him up if he got upset and then put him down once he was ok but this was rarely needed. I also learnt to just step back and let him do his own thing as sometimes you are fussing around settling them and actually getting in the way of what they want to do to get to sleep! This also applies to when they make noises, often ds is noisy when going to sleep so I had to learn the difference between his various sounds as I was rushing in to help and just unsettling him more.
At ten weeks I would just start working on the bedtime sleep cues if you haven't already and start very gently with gradually doing less vigorous rocking as she is still so small. I went at ds pace and this made it a happy experience for both of us. I'd have thought all of the above could work for naps but I haven't tried it as he's a catnapper so is in the sling for all of them, that's a whole different sleep issue!

Putting them down at a routine time. Also, I feed ds (9wk) in the dark then when he's finished I put him in cot. He generally settles himself as the dark cosy feed probably relaxes him. At this age, if he is crying after that feed I think it's only because of a burp or still being hungry. With dd we relied v heavily on our monitor which played nice music and seemed to soothe her.

Thanks for your tips, will def try doing what's been suggested as i like the sound of doing this gradually. Agree about the dark room, need to invest in blackout blinds now!

We did a lot of patting and shushing in the crib but it was long and arduous and mixed successful journey... but for next time I might try the "wake and sleep" method described in the first section of this article:

www.parents.com/baby/sleep/issues/advice/

I agree. Strong bedtime routine; bath, baby massage, boob, then bed is ours. I then sit quietly in the room with her till she drops off and sooth her with forehead stroking/tummy rub and ignore the noises that are just her going to.sleep noises. Like other post, i was mistaking them for discomfort. If she really cries i use pick up put down method. Pick up if cries then put down soon as it stops.
My dd is only 8 weeks but its working so far.