How do you settle your baby to sleep? Top tips plse

[dycey]

Have done so many things and with DS at 7 months have reverted to the old favourite of feeding to sleep at night and dancing / jiggling for naps.... but he is getting heavy... and wakes a lot at night..... so I think my way isn't that great though it is not at all stressful for either of us. But I feel pretty envious of friends who just pop baby into bed and leave the room and their babies don't cry much and settle down to sleep and I wonder how did they get there? It looks so easy!

How do you settle your babies to sleep?
Does doing the same thing from birth help?
Do you think babies really get into 'bad habits' or are they born wanting company and help to get to sleep?
Bedtime and nap routines too please.

Any experience would be appreciated.

boob.

or daddy dancing.

really must do something constructive about that but he's my last so am spoiling him a bit and letting him get a way with murder

This probably sounds a bit bonkers, but I read Harry Potter to DD (8mo) to get her to nap during the day. I used to read pages and pages to get her off, now I just need to read a couple of sentences and she curls up on her side, thumb in her mouth, and goes off to sleep.

At night time I just feed her though.

ahh

thanks - might try the reading... but he tends to cry as soon as he is on his back (he prefers to sit up or stand up)

my baby (10 months) started turning onto his side when he was ready to go to sleep about a month ago - that makes things easier ...I don't think lying on back - though safer - is the most comfortable position for most babies. He learnt to lie on his side duing a bout of co-sleeping when he turned towards me - but I believe lots of babies move onto their fronts of their own volition. Maybe something like that will happen to your baby - is it dangerous to put him on his side yrself? I don't know. But it seems more snug.

The other thing is to have a very confident, slightly bossy attitude when putting baby down. They pick up on it. If you're feeling hesitant because you think he might cry immediately, try to forget it; imagine, instead, him going straight to sleep. "This is the way it's going to be, little one", sort of thing.

We do bath, feed while Daddy reads a story, then lights out and finish the feed, then a standy-up cuddle with a lullaby, then into cot, kiss goodnight with the same words every night and leave the room. Nine times out of ten he rolls over, puts his thumb and goes off on his own. Occasionally a little tired shouting first.

It was a long road to get there though and we used to rock him to sleep, then gradually phased it out by getting him into the cot a bit earlier every time.

Agree that it definitely got easier when he could roll onto his side as that seems to help him settle.

I think lots of babies do need help to sleep from birth though and there's nothing wrong with that. You can gradually withdraw it as they get older and better at self-settling. And I think some babies settle really well from birth and it's the luck of the draw which you get! But for the ones that find it harder, the routine definitely helps.

For naptimes, I read him a story and do the lullaby. That took a while longer to work but again now it nearly always does the trick.

Boob always sent ds off to sleep, but failing that his musical light projector thingy, to the extent that at age 2 he still needs it to go to sleep. I'm feeling a little dependency coming on - oops!

My ds started to cry every time I put him on his back for naps, so after he was 7-8mths ish I stopped and just sat him up in his cot with his teddy. He would chatter for 5-10mins then lie down and sleep.

At 11mths though this has all gone to pot, and he stands up, throwing everything he can get his hands on out the cot and crying...

He is spending alot of naps strapped into his pushchair instead he goes off quickly like this.

Bedtime is esy though - bath, feed, story and then quiet cuddle with dad if he is still awake. I think the routine really helps him - I should do it for naps too