What's the deal with self soothing?? STRUGGLING!

[allyf92]

Baby is almost 5 months and so far has been falling asleep on the boob or in the rocker.

We want him to start to learn to self soothe and are trying to put him down while drowsy and going up to shush him and stroke his head (not picking up) after a few minutes of grizzling/crying.

He just seems to go from drowsy to increasingly worked up and awake! How do we get past this stage to him being able to self settle and fall asleep on his own?

I cuddled my kids to sleep until they were a year old. I would keep doing what works TBH.

If they like feeding to sleep/boob, have you tried a dummy?

Personal opinion is that he's too tiny still, neither of mine got the hang of it until closer to 9/10 months.

My 6month old has just got the hang of self soothing again. Stumbled across this thread and it was super helpful, technique worked within 2-3 days of persisting with it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1394888-What-worked-for-us-Hope-this-helps?postsby=nectarina&fromid=81898068

Dd2 could be cheek stroked to sleep but dd1 got worked up like you described. Eventually we worked out she settled easily herself left in a dark room after a couple of minutes crying (if that). She's sensory defensive and sensory seeking so it makes sense she needed no stimulus.

Some kids don't for a long while, it's a developmental skill just like walking to talking. You wouldn't expect your 5 mo to strike up a conversation about the merits of the tombliboos. I'd say just do whatever works for now and reassess in a few months. Even if you do get somewhere then weaning, teething, illness comes along every other week anyway which will disrupt things.

Try a dummy.

Sucking is nature's self soothing mechanism