Does your baby just “go to sleep”?

[crazychemist]

Curious as to whether there are ANY babies that just “go” to sleep without being settled by an adult?

Websites about sleep often talk about “drowsy but alert” etc, which was something I honestly never achieved with my DD (4yo now, sleeps just fine but we never did do any sleep training or such). Do these babies actually exist, that self-settle at a young age?

Currently trying to settle my newborn twins by any possible method. I’m very aware of safe cosleeping rules, but finding them very much harder to follow with twins. I have had absolutely no success settling them in their cot so far and am wondering whether I’m doing something wrong/it’ll improve if I persist/it’s just their personality.

My 11 month old DD goes to sleep by herself for naps and night time, she has since she was around 6.5 months old. We did sleep train, we left her for 1 minute and then 2 minutes and added a minute on each time, she was only ever left for a maximum of 7 minutes before she'd then go to sleep. Now within 5 mins of putting her down she'll go to sleep

Yes ... both of mines did... I was preparing for long nights drama night feeds... I got zilch...

both babies slept right through til around 7am after maybe 14 nights .. if I remember correctly.. DH did the night feeds those initial nights..

they both teenagers now of course but I realise I was so very lucky .. reading some threads on here ... 🌺

My DS pops himself off to sleep, although I slightly live in fear of him forgetting how!

He started to manage it at bedtime from about 5 months and naps at 6.5, before that not a cat in hell's chance. We spent a lot of time rocking a pram quite violently for naps.

My younger did (and still does) but my eldest never did and still doesn’t. She’s six now and still has to be persuaded to sleep with 500 glasses of water, 700 stories and eight thousand hugs.

My eldest managed to go down drowsy but awake from 6 months ish and was always a pretty reasonable sleeper. However, my youngest (just turned 5 months old) is a complete and utter bloody nightmare. He doesn’t stay asleep regardless of what contraption he’s put in or whether he’s fed to sleep or whether he’s rocked etc... not a chance in hell of putting him down drowsy but awake. We’ve done nothing differently with this one, so I’m inclined to think it’s at least partly due to their own individual natures.

With my eldest, she fought sleep all the time until one night when she was about 6 weeks old I was so tired and hungry (DH was at work) that I started to lose my temper with her. I walked out of the room for a few minutes like you're told to - came back to discover that all she had wanted was the dark and the quiet and she'd noddled off herself.

Yes mine did at night from about 4 months and about 6.5 months for naps. I remember laughing about the “drowsy but awake” thing when they were a newborn but after a few months they were happy to go in the cot drowsy.

Mine slept through from 6 weeks and just went to sleep in his cot. It was probably survival instinct having a very young mum without a clue.

DS (15 months) always does it at nursery apparently but will he do it at home? Not a chance.

No never.

Hell no! My youngest is 4 months and has to be fed/cuddled/rocked/patted or else he’ll just scream and scream. My twins were the same, I tried everything and they’re still terrible at ‘going to sleep’ 3.5 years later. Still need lots of cuddles, stories and hand holding. It’s very frustrating and am blaming the fact that they’re we’re all breastfed babies and I could never face the CIO method. My friends’ bottle fed babies all sleep like a dream apparently! Sending strength OP!

Mine never did. It's still hit and miss 6 yrs later!

DS (17mo) does and has on and off since about 7mo - it's rare these days that he doesn't.

I'd like to say it's the sleep training I did (huge amounts of shushing and patting) but I actually suspect it's more to do with him than anything I did.

Massive 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 to you with twins, my mind boggles at how you manage!

Mine both did straight away. I did Gina Ford routine & it worked well for us as a family. I like a routine & it helped me work out what I should be doing when. It's not popular to admit on here though.

Just noticed you have twins - not sure how easy a routine would be with twins 🙄

DD is a mythical drowsy but awake baby - she still woke up often for the first 6 months needing a feed/change but once full she would go down awake and drift off without extra help from about 2 months. Having looked after a lot of friends’ babies previously I thought drowsy but awake was a myth. I think it helped that she never seemed to have any colic, so she was comfy and didn’t need persuading to sleep, and she liked to be swaddled so she didn’t mind as much when we put her down. I think it’s 100% luck of the draw rather than parental technique though!

No one I know currently 😂 I have a friend who said her first child did, but I'm dubious. I'm pretty sure i remember her complaining at the time.

It shows that it's rare and good for you it it does! But also very very normal and healthy not to.

DD self settled at 6m, basically as soon as we gave her the chance to.

@Porcupine83 I do genuinely believe it depends on the baby's nature. We're all different.

Even as adults, some of us close our eyes and drift off, others take longer to sleep etc.

My first dc did. I just used to lay him in his cot and he would go to sleep. Slept through really early as well. Sometimes he took a while but he was always happy enough.
My dc2 never did and still now, age 6, likes to have a cuddle when going to bed. He was also the lightest sleeper in the world, I swear he would wake when the air pressure in the room changed as I moved or tried to close the door.
I really think it's luck of the draw whether or not a child sleeps well.

My 8 month old DD does but this only happened after sleep training. In fact, I don't even wait until she is drowsy. I can pop her in her cot wide awake with her comfort toy and she will be asleep in about 5 minutes with no crying.
It has been a long journey to get her to be able to do that though.
Now I just need to get her sleeping through!

Yes my DD always went to sleep easily from pretty much newborn, just put her sleepy and chilled in cot/moses basket/swing chair whatever and she would lie there for a but then dose off

My baby did between 9-10 months until she cut two front teeth at 11ish months and then she decided to regress somewhat

My DS does (11 months) and has since 6ish months BUT we did do gentle sleep training. He never would have done it without that.

Now he just rolls around a bit then goes to sleep for both naps and bedtime.

I've also read that babies shouldn't be expected to do this before 5 months and sleep training before then shouldn't be attempted as they're too young and genuinely need to be rocked/fed to sleep. No idea if that's true but we didn't attempt it til 6 months anyway as he seemed ready.

After a lot of work my 6 month old goes in drowsy and rarely will chat himself to sleep but mainly needs to be shushed and patted. It's made zero difference to night wakings.

We used to cuddle DC1 and she slept better I think. He would nod off in our arms in a second if we didn't put him down so I'm waiting to see if it will pay off with ease of bedtimes in the long run (as we were cuddling DD and waiting until she was in a deep enough sleep for 2 years!)