Who's baby/toddler falls asleep on their own?

[Newmum26]

Interested to know how everyone gets the baby/toddler to sleep?
We put our 15 month old in his cot awake after bath, book and milk and then have to sit next to his cot until he is asleep enough to leave the room else he will stand up and get upset when he realises you've left the room.
I've heard it's quite common to have to stay near your LO when he's dropping off but just curious to hear how others put their LO's to bed 😊

We stumbled on a bit of magic here. For the first few months we kept the moses basket at the far end of the lounge and popped our dc in it around 7. They would go off to sleep far enough away from us that they were putting himself to sleep but close enough that they could hear us moving around, chatting or watching tv. When we moved the Moses basket upstairs and started taking them up to out to bed they were already in a rhythm so neither of ours have ever had any trouble with bedtime.

I know it's too late for you to do this but it might help someone!

Since my first was about 10 weeks old I’ve put him down awake and left him to go to sleep. He sleeps wonderfully. Recently we took the cot side off and then gave up and put it back on but he still realised that he can climb back out. Now I tell him if the door opens I’m putting the sleeping bag on him which he can’t climb with. He generally stays in bed and drops off. Sometimes I need to put him in the sleeping bag and leave him to it.

His 6 month old brother who sleeps in the same room I give a dummy but sometimes he’ll cry for 5-10 min before going to sleep.

They don’t ever sleep if I’m around unless they’re exhausted. Too stimulating.

Our 9m old goes to bed awake. Chats to himself for a bit then drifts off. The older two went to bed with bottles which I know you shouldn't do but it was the only way

I’ve 3dc, eldest I did CC (I know lots don’t like it) and he self settled after 2 days, middle ducked her thumb from 3mo so that’s all she needed to get to sleep & youngest did have a dummy, however started refusing it at 8mo and just settled himself after that. He’s 12mo and sometimes goes to sleep without a sound, sometimes chats for 10 minutes first and sometimes cries for 5 minutes.

None of mine have ever liked being rocked to sleep etc. And if we stayed in the room it would just infuriate them.

The downside (imo) with the self settling is when he occasionally wakes in the night I don’t know how to get him back to sleep... so always give him a bottle of that happened, which isn’t great.

Mine did, now a teenager but I just put him in his Moses basket, left the room and he self settled, never occurred to me that I should rock/cuddle him to sleep. I followed the GF routine which I know is despised on Mumsnet but he went to bed at 7pm from the day we got home from hospital, just one quick feed in the middle of the night and then woke at 7am. I think I was just very lucky .

I put my 10 month old into cot after a bottle and then leave him. Unless he's absolutely exhausted he never goes straight to sleep. He babbles to himself and at the moment gets on all fours and wiggles his bum so I have to turn him over and ssshh him several times before he actually sleeps.

We set a routine when our daughter was born in 2014. Bath bottle bed.
She slept through night from 6 weeks old (from 10-7am).

When she weaned she was a little later bit that's ok and when she was 1 she was given a night drink of Horlicks which she always fell asleep drinking.

She stopped bottle and had it via cup instead and still did same til she was 2.5, now won't have it but we just nacker her out during nursery etc.

Gonna follow same pattern with the wee man when he arrives shortly.

Ewan the dream sheep helped a little too with the white noise and she has a GroClock to help with wake up in morning etc.

Mine has done it twice in his almost 12 months.

DS only needs help sleeping if he is ill. He's been like this since 4-5 months. We have been very lucky. We don't want to tempt fate by having another one lol

My dd started going into her cot awake from 12ish months. Before that she either fed or was cuddled to sleep. It was just a natural progression for my dd, i didn't do any sleep training apart from slowly reducing the amount of time i was breastfeeding for and cuddling instead. Now if I'm doing bedtime I give her a cuddle and sing a lullaby, then she will usually gesture to be put in the cot. I kiss her, she blows me a kiss 😍 and then i shut the door. She won't do this for her dad though, she needs to be cuddled to sleep and fully asleep before he can leave the room. So no advice, i feel she just reached some developmental level and learnt to self-settle

DD self settled from less than a week old, I think because we were stuck in hospital and I was having to express, so after she fed I was putting her in the cot to express straight away.

She is 15 months now and along the way we've had a few short phases where she has needed more help going to sleep if she hasn't fallen asleep feeding. I've never deliberately fed to sleep but since starting to walk she is so shattered in the evening she has fallen asleep on the boob.

The last two nights she has been awake after the feed and has demanded a book to take in the cot which she's looked at for 20 minutes before going to sleep. I can't decide whether this should be encouraged or discouraged!

All 4 of mine have just been bathed, fed then put in cot awake and left alone to go to sleep. Often with mobile on. I just did it that way from the very start. To be fair though 2 of them were extremely premature and in neonatal they just get swaddled (of sorts) and put back in cot. I think I've been lucky really

One of mine just always went into his bed awake and fell asleep, never any tears, a bit like Ragwort, though he wasn't in a routine.

One goes into the cot and sometimes goes straight to sleep, sometimes needs a bit of bum patting.

One initially fed to sleep but then I did pick up/put down to get them self settling at about 8 months.

Wow. So many perfect babies/toddlers! Not being snide, honest, just a bit envious! Well, DS (2.5) still needs me or DP in the room till he drops off. Doubtless this makes us terrible parents but actually it can be quite nice calm cosy time with him. Other times, admittedly, it's a PITA. We will get round to re-starting gradual withdrawal eventually, we're just not in any hurry.

I think you either have a baby that will be put down awake or you don't...

Ds would never be put down awake as a baby, and still needs us there until he had asleep at 2.

Oh and he has a bedtime routine and has done since a few months old. It's not a magic bullet for everyone!

I think it's more that some do it easily, and some you have to teach.

My first two were a nightmare however ds3 would always fall asleep by himself but only in the day, in his pushchair and outside! I did nothing different with him I had tried the same with ds1 and ds2 but it never worked.

My 14 month old has always had her milk, usually in our arms while her Ewan Dream sheep plays a lullaby. As soon as she's finished, we pop her in her cot, with her dummy (the only time she uses a dummy, so maybe it's part of her routine?) and we leave the room.

If we stay in the room, she will stand up, want to play and probably cry because she's tired and we are keeping her up.

It's just what we've always done. We've always waited for her to be tired and then followed the same routine, for naps and bedtime.

I have older children too and with them I remember having to pat my eldest to sleep every time and that was very difficult. We also had to back out of the room when he was asleep so this is much better.

I have a 14 month old, we have always put him in his cot and thankfully he falls asleep pretty much straight away. He loves sleep though🙏🏻 he has the odd days when he cries because he doesn't want me to leave him so something I lay next to him or white noise has worked a great since 4 months old

Mine does for naps..bedtime hes bfed and cuddled to sleep. I think its such a lovely way to end his day. Iv no rush to sleeptrain him otherwise as he seems content

Haha no. DS (4 months) has gone to sleep on his own, after being laid down, exactly once. Got us really excited it did.

Since about 4 weeks old DS has gone down after a bath/bottle/story then gone to sleep on his own. Sometimes all times needs me to go in to give him his comforter but will still go to sleep alone

I had to work at it.

Initially cuddles and songs (from me), then lying down snuggled together and songs, then sitting next to the bed with an arm draped over and songs, then no arm and songs, then across the room on my bed and songs, then popping out of the room to 'get something' but coming straight back, then popping out 'to get something' and staying out for longer before going back. Eventually just saying goodnight and leaving. Took about 6 months in a toddler that previously breast fed to sleep. I think it could have been quicker though; I wasn't in a big rush.

Wow. So many perfect babies/toddlers! Not being snide, honest, just a bit envious!

I honestly think it is just down to good luck - and remember your perfect baby might turn out to be a nightmare teenager - just had a blazing row with my 17 year old (perfect sleeper ) because I dared to suggest he tidied his room. .

Disclaimer - I appreciate there are a lot worse teenage problems.