Can/could your 8 month old settle themself to sleep?

[LadySnapcase]

If you just put them down awake in the cot, for example? DS was starting to get the hang of going to sleep without being rocked (though still in our arms) but seems to have regressed the last week or so He wakes once or twice a night, and sometimes if we put him down very very drowsy he will manage to get himself over, but not often. So I was wondering what the general thing was at this age, are we massively behind on the self settling thing or it it pretty common not to be able to?

I don't have a lot of experience as I only have dd who's 7 months, but she can self settle about 95% of the time. The only time she will put up a fight is for her afternoon nap. We put her down at 7, or earlier if she's dropping, and we give her her dummy and her comforter or teddy and she might babble to herself for 15 minutes but then goes off. if she wakes in the night we give her back her teddy and she cuddles it back to sleep. I've never rocked her to sleep in my arms..
only when in Moses basket really.

That sounds like heaven Xfirefly... I wish I'd never rocked him! But he was very colicky for the first 3 months and it was the only way to settle him. We'd been making progress with weaning him off it, presuming this is the 8 month regression!

HAHAHAHAHA no. She can't now and never has. We still feed/rock to sleep, and if you put her down in the cot before she is fully deeply completely fast asleep then she wakes up immediately in a total fury

2 could, the other one I was still bfing until asleep (or very nearly asleep) at that age.

I found if he was really sleepy and I patted and ssshed him in the cot it helped. Also feeding him in his grobag so he was nice and warm and the cold cot was less of a shock

Can't remember when separation anxiety started but that always set them back a bit, as they didn't want me to leave them.

calilark Yep, it's like unleashing hell here if we dare put him down before he deems it acceptable. Which is a time frame that changes every night; drowsy is apparently fine one night but absolutely not the next...

ShoeWhore Shushing helps sometimes and enrages him at others! He's always in his grobag, which he seems to thing belongs in his mouth. I'm pretty sure we're in the depths of separation anxiety too, I feel like I have a third arm or something he's that attached.

This too shall pass, this too shall pass...

That phrase runs through my head on near constant repeat!

dd can settle herself perfectly and never feeds to sleep ... She's still up up to six times a night. It's not a cure all in my experience. There's timesi wish she'd feed to sleep...

Nope, we rocked our little boy to sleep for months, at about 10 months we stopped rocking and just hugged him to sleep in our arms and just 3 weeks ago at 16 months he started going into his cot completely awake and falling asleep independently, but I think this has only worked because he's now so heavy that he's uncomfortable in our arms.

Ouch pinkr. We still have the occasional night like that (in fact in starting this thread I've practically guaranteed tonight will be one of them...). Soul destroying...

MaxsMummy Yes, I think DS is a bit uncomfortable as is my spine but he hasn't figured out he'll be more comfortable if he just lays in his cot and goes to sleep That does give me hope that he'll eventually crack it though...

My five month old baby is just learning how to self settle. Before I would just out dummy (pacifier) in his mouth and he would fall asleep w that. I couldn't spend much time getting him to sleep bc I have a two year old...well she just turned two so early one I had two under two! Anyway, the past few weeks he has been spitting the dummy out when I try to put it in and now I don't bother. He just makes a few noises rolls over and sleeps. Sometimes he makes some whining or crying noises, but falls asleep in a minute or two. He still wakes at night for feeds though :( but at least for naps and bed time he settles himself.

All babies are different though. But you need to give them the opportunity to self settle.

We do try every now and again, but he's always just screamed his head off after a few minutes. We don't want to do CC (at least not yet, ask me again in 6 months ) so not sure what else to do really...

DD is nearly 8mo. Very rarely self settles. I know it's possible, but she almost always needs some extra help. Still wakes lots in the night too :( yaaaaaaawnnn!!!!!

Yes both mine did . I always put them down awake from birth . We used music to let them listen to it and drift off. Scout / violet bears are brilliant for this .

He was getting the hang of it my 8 months - we managed to move from feeding to sleep to rocking to sleep to patting to sleep in his cot, and then just tried to stop the patting a little bit earlier each time (so not totally asleep). By 9 months we could put him in his cot awake and he'd self settle 90% of the time, sometimes he would still need/like some patting.

Dd self settled until she was four months, then had to be fed or rocked to sleep until very recently; she is now 15 months and self settles about half of the time.

Dd always could, she's 5 now and has always been an excellent sleeper. Ds is 7 and has never slept through the night yet!