how to get a baby to sleep?

[missknows]

It seems a lot of people are in the same boat here but with different age babies and each have different methods. I'm on my last legs so can some of you write down how you get your baby to sleep for naps, for night, their age and how successful this is and how happy you are with this?

Me:
Baby 4.5 months. Day and night I have to give her dummy while she lays in my arms and she just drifts off then put her in cot asleep (trying not to wake her). If I put her down awake she just rolls around for a bit then cries. This method of getting her to sleep is successful but I'm not happy with it :-( I'm fairly sure it's led to her needing me to help her get back to sleep when she wakes during the night.

Next?

Ds is 5 months. Mostly breastfeed to sleep then put down. If he stirs a bit I lay my hand on his tummy which mostly works. Putting down tip is make sure bed is warm and hold them close to you for as long as possible when bending over the cot, before putting them down. If he is awake in the night after feeding I put on just the light and sound part of the mobile or the sea sounds on his Prince Lionheart slumber bear.

For naps the same except I put him down on the playmat or in the rocker chair sometimes.

He is my third child, so I am quite relaxed about it all, he has to fit around what is going on a bit.

I have found associating a blankie that smells of you (sleep with it for a few nights) and a musical light lullaby toy with that feed, cuddle to sleep process means that you can eventually wean them on to using the blankie and lullaby toy as comfort to self settle.

DS is only 10wks... For naps DS just sleeps in the baby carrier while we're out and about and at night he breastfeeds to sleep and then I put him down in the night. He's a very content little thing and so at the moment this works really well for us. Again, he's number 2 and so it's more important to me that he is adaptable and can fit in with DD's hectic toddler social life! Her sleep is a different story - I spent ages worrying about routine and attempting to teach her to self settle and she has still turned out to be a rubbish sleeper!

Thanks. I just don't know what to try next- hence wanting lots of suggestions. I am grateful I can get her to sleep easily and she will sleep in the cot so I can get stuff done during the day but when she wakes at night she then needs me to get her back to sleep be it by boob or cuddle. She is waking so many times at night at the moment I really need to get her to get back to sleep on her own.

DS, 4.5m, currently needs a dummy. We put him down, dummy in, white noise on. I hate the dummy! Not 100% sure how we're going to deal with it down the line. I'm hoping to replace it with something else he can hold himself, but he's not quite got the hang of reaching out to grasp stuff yet, only grasping something if his hand happens to come into contact with it.

He's a doddle compared with DD though. She was an awful sleeper until 14/15 months. We tried everything to help her self settle but she resisted. Not sure what changed really!

There isn't a magic solution unfortunately. I would go with a transition object and gradual retreat from what you're currently doing. No Cry Sleep Solution is a good read.

Dd is 4 1/2 months old too. If we're at home I'll lie on the bed and feed her to sleep for her morning nap. I then transfer her to the cot if I'm leaving the room, or if I'm having a sneaky nap too then she stays put.
Most of the time we're out and about during the day so she naps in the car, but if we're home in the afternoon I'll feed her, and pop her down in the carrycot part of her pram. She'll lie quietly for a while, then cry for a bit but goes off to sleep reasonably quickly.
At night I feed her on the bed again. When I transfer her she often wakes up so she gets covered in kisses and put in her cot. She normally goes straight off to sleep again. When I transfer her sleeping she often wakes up within about half an hour and cries for a couple of minutes then goes back to sleep.
She's exclusively breastfed, and what I've found has made a difference recently to the length of time that she sleeps is feeding her one boob before her bath, and then she has the other (quite full one) on the bed. I have a cut off time for feeding her one side so it can get nice and full, and it seems that a full tummy really helps her to sleep as she usually sleeps for between 8 and 9 hours.
WRT your baby getting back to sleep during the night on her own, I think that's quite a big ask. My dd is a very easy baby and sleeps brilliantly, but I feel it would be asking a lot of even her to get herself back to sleep in the middle of the night. She would get very upset I'm sure.
How long does your dd cry for if she's put down awake during the day/at bedtime?

It sounds like I'm doing things pretty similarly with getting her down for naps and even bed then really.

I guess I'll just have to put up with the settling her at night until she grows out of it. She won't cry when she wakes just wriggles around making noises until I either pick her up or she rolls against the side of the cot and then she yells as she only rolls left so can't get back!

I just pick her up when she wakes as the longer I leave her the more awake she becomes so the longer it takes to get her back to sleep. If I manage to pick her up really quickly it might only be a minute or two in my arms until I can put her back down.

Since she does fall asleep easily in my arms and is getting easier and easier to put down and stay down I think I'll just carry on. Only 2 night feeds and one resettle last night so we are making progress.

We were in the same situation with DS rolling and getting wedged at the side of the cot. It took us a week to work out that this was now his favorite sleeping position so we bought an Angelcare monitor and just accepted it! It took another week for DS to get used to waking up on his front and not being distressed by it.

We are seeing progress! He is returning to better sleep slowly