Has anyone got any tips of things they did really early on with their babies that turned them into wonder sleepers??

[Wannabuyawatch]

The advice I seem to read the most often is to lay them down to sleep while awake so they learn to fall asleep on their own.
I am now on ds3 and this has never really worked for me! All 3 have been quite gassy and colicy and so have needed help falling asleep.

I´m keen to start some good habits early on this time (ds3 is 6 weeks)
Any tips?

Although tummy sleeping from 4 weeks when i gave in to his insistence that he would not sleep on his back took us from 20 seconds to 6-7 hours in one fell swoop. Pretty sure that comes under "listening to your baby" rather than "rules for good sleep" though

Mine all slept really well, really quickly.

All were bottle fed from about a week. All were put down to sleep in their Moses basket. Dd1 had a crib, but wouldn't sleep in it without the Moses basket inside it! (Until she was about 4 months old).

I never ever put them to sleep in my bed. I was terrified of rolling on them.

Cluster feeding in the evening.

From about six weeks only offering water if they woke in the night.

Dd2 ( who was prem) was swaddled.

Personally don't think it is down to luck. I have three DCs and by four months they all slept through. The youngest two are twins. I chose to follow a routine (modified Gina ford). Monitoring closely how much milk they drank during the day and making sure they took one long nap (2 hours) at lunchtime was key. I did let them self soothe .. May get criticism from some ... But with twins and working full time with 12 hours days for me it was the only way.

What do you mean by self soothe? I let mine do that too - it's the movement they do with their mouths as though they are suckling, which is thought (apparently) to make them feel comforted in their sleep.

Do you mean you left them to cry?

Some babies do this with a dummy, btw or with their thumb or fingers.

Same thing. It isn't about crying.

I think the myth that bottle feeding helps sleep, as opposed to bf is bollocks.... Bottle fed babies tend to be more windy / colicky, so it can have the opposite effect. I think it's largely luck. I did IDENTICAL things with DD1 and now twins. DD 1 woke every two hours until 18 months. The now four month old twins wake once between 7 and 7....

Well done you Moggy72

However things like reflux, tongue tie etc all put paid to that in my case!

Two hour nap? I did everything to try and get Dd1 to have a decent lunch time nap. No joy until 11 months, when she did it by herself. DD2 I didn't bother trying. she did it herself at the same age.

I firmly believe people over credit themselves and under credit nature when thinking about sleep.

Was that to me Rooners? By self settle, I mean let them try and sleep without rocking/cuddling. So every now and then I would feed ds and dd give a cuddle and instead of rocking for ages (up to an hour at times!) I'd put them in the cot and leave and see if they'd sleep. I wouldn't leave them to cry, no way. They had reflux so I couldn't risk it. But occasionally they'd roll about and chatter then sleep.

Oh yes it was - and I am really glad you came back and explained.

I have seen people use the term self soothe to mean letting babies cry alone and it makes me really sad.

So I'm very glad that isn't what you meant. Thankyou.

And sorry if I implied you meant something you didn't. I was hoping you didn't!

No no, no offense taken! I wasn't that clear really. I definitely noticed that at certain stages, DD especialy, wouldn't want me to stick around too much. Once she started talking, she would shout "cot, me cot!" as a signal to put her down so she could sleep. Other times it would be cuddle/feed/cuddle............

rooners you are referring to cry it out rather than self soothe. Which yes, IMO is sad and unnessary!

I let dd self soothe, I put her down and let her fall asleep by herself, she normally chatters and kicks for a bit but very quickly falls asleep. If she crys (not very often) then I will pick her up and cuddle, rock, feed, wind , whatever she needs.

I definitely let DS self settle, and suspect that a lot of mums do pick up their baby at the slightest gurgle in the night, judging from what I read on here sometimes. DS has gone through various phases of waking, chatting and gurgling for up to 30 mins, then drifting off again. I'd be damaging his ability to self settle if I was constantly picking him up! But never left to cry.

Yy shredded my dd frequently stirs in the night, if I picked her up it would wake her properly, by leaving her she is able to settle back to sleep very quickly.