Taking forever to self settle!

[Plateofcrumbs]

DS is 11mo, usually rocked to sleep but am trying to encourage him to self settle. No matter how tired he is when I lay him the cot, no matter time spent soothing and getting him drowsy beforehand, if I put him down anything less than 100% asleep he takes a minimum of 1hr to settle himself, often getting on for 2hrs. I'm staying in room as he will scream otherwise and I don't think I am up for CC. Getting bored of spending evenings MNing in a darkened nursery. Help?!

[Plateofcrumbs]

Fingers crossed for a repeat performance timealone. That is basically the same aporoach io am using - minimal intervention!

We have had three good nights in a row - a quick scream and asleep for DH, the next night he was pretty much asleep during his feed and flaked straight out in the cot. Last night there was a bit of faffing about and standing up despite the fact he was clearly knackered but he fell asleep after about 20 mins, on his own (well, holding my hand through the cot bars which was so super cute I let him get away with it!). Dare I hope this is progress or will we be back to 2.5hrs of antics tonight?

[DuhNuh]

We're making steady progress too: three nights of 45 minutes of crying before settling and only 20 minutes tonight (ignoring the 45 minutes it took this morning for her nap...). I am coinciding the training with stopping breastfeeding so probably have made things a bit more difficult too but hopefully she'll start to forget that she ever breastfed!

[mamaneedsamojito]

16mo and we still cuddle to sleep . He sleeps through the night though so it doesn't cause any issues. I know we should really work on self settling again soon but it's just so stressful all round...

[timealone]

Since I posted it has been quite up and down. Yesterday we had a lot of crying for both nap and bedtime, to the extent that DH and I both had to hand over to the other person. I don't recall how long it took, but it felt like a long time and I ended up cuddling to sleep at bedtime. The whole thing did make me a bit shaky about the whole thing, but then to be fair, DS was unsettled all day yesterday, so perhaps he just had a bad day.

Today was much better. Took about 10-15 min to settle for nap, and then 30 min for bedtime with next to no crying.

I'd be happy if cuddling to sleep worked mama, as DS does sleep though most nights. But DS tends to wriggle and squirm so I put him down, then we repeat ad infinitum until he gets very sleepy and falls asleep on me. The whole process usually takes over an hour, which is why we're trying to be more consistent and get him to fall asleep in the cot.

[timealone]

Glad to hear its getting better for you DuhNuh

[Iwillorderthefood]

If anyone still looking at this thread, my issue is not that DD cannot self settle its that she keeps waking up after the initial fell to sleep by herself. At this point she then will not go back down and just makes noise til I feed her. No matter what we do....any ideas?