DS cries however he's put to sleep- what should we do?

[Cookethenook]

DS isn't very consistent with how he likes to be put to sleep.

We were adamant we weren't going to do controlled crying with him, so haven't done this so far and have rocked and cuddled to sleep, with him sucking on a dummy, finger or nothing at all (he changes his mind quite a bit about that!).

However, the common denominator is that he always cries. From between 5-15 mins usually. It happens wether he's overtired, or just started to be ready for a nap or sleep.

It leaves me unsure of what to do. I can't work out wether he just needs a bit of a cry to get the last of his energy out, or wether he's really not enjoying being cuddled. I wonder wether i should just try putting him in his cot and letting him get on with it. We've had a few instances where he's been crying before a nap and we've just put him down to grab a dummy and he's dropped off by himself.

I'm really a bit lost, any advice would be welcome.

He's 6 months this week btw.

Try it - you can always change your mind. If hes not cold, wet or hungry and its not a distressed red face screaming cry I think you could be right he might just get so tired its his way of saying leave me alone?

IMHO there is leaving a baby to cry and letting them have a little cry they are not the same thing at all

sounds like hes got a lovely mum so dont worry too much

Well, some babies do just like to be left alone to go to sleep, don't discount that. Leaving him to grumble/cry for a few minutes is definitely not controlled crying. Try to leave him, and see what happens, if he gets too distressed, pick him up again.

i would try some different things and see if anything else works.

ds3 was like this though. my others always fed to sleep which was so ncie and easy. but not ds3. he'd feed, feed, feed, feed... then cry to sleep

my DD was (still is at nearly 13 months) like this when she was a baby. It also took me a while to realise that if I just left her to it she'd fall asleep in 5-10 mins. If I faffed around with her then it would go on forever!

These days she just chats to herself for a while then goes to sleep at bedtime. For a nap she will still grumble but goes off if left alone. The more I go in the worse it gets....!

Like others have said, there is a difference between grumbling and crying. You can always go back if he hasn't settled in 10-15 mins or however long youre happy to leave him to it.

Controlled crying means you leave them for short periods. You can give him a nice cuddle, sing a song then put him down and say goodnight. Then leave him few minutes and see what happens. If he's upset or getting more upset, go in and reassure him.

My son has always cried himself to sleep, be it naps or night sleeps.

Between the ages of 0-4 months, I would nurse him to sleep and we co-slept, but directly I got him into a routine and he would be transferred into his cot to sleep, he would cry. I would say anything between 30 secs and 15 minutes.

We have a video monitor and it was reassuring to see that he wasn't really upset, he was moving around in his cot making noise and then would get into a good position and sleep.

He is just over a year now and sleeps beautifully, but will immediately stand up in his cot when I put him down and cry. My mum recently was really shocked by this as me and my sister never did it, and my sisters children never did either!! I don't see it as controlled crying though as it's not like he is inconsolable and I'm having to go back in and shhhh pat etc.

I just see it as him wanting to stay up with us and protesting a bit before he realises he is actually tired and hoping to sleep.

Going

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, DS has been quite poorly this week, so i think we'll try it out next week :)