Putting babies to bed awake

[covycrump]

I keep reading that it's a good idea to put babies to bed whilst they are still awake but drowsy, to help them self-settle. This is not possible with DS; he pretty much only feeds to sleep, and then we either hold him and let him sleep on our chests if it's day time, or transfer him to the Moses basket or cot and keep our fingers crossed (he'll then wake three out of four times, so the feeding process begins again, as it's the only thing that really calms him). He's never gone to sleep in basket or cot from awake, although a couple of times he's come off the breast while sleepy, and drifted off in my arms. How much does it matter that he's feeding to sleep and should I be doing something about this? And if not now, when? DS is one month old.

Doesn't matter one bit when he's so tiny. It's totally normal for small babies to feed or be cuddled to sleep, whatever the books say. As he gets older, you might want to try putting him down awake and seeing what happens but I really wouldn't worry about it yet.

We had to feed or rock DS to sleep until he was about 5 months old. It was hard work in the early days, but once he got in the habit of sleeping at roughly the same time each day, and in his cot, it was just a case of quick rock, he'd drop off and we'd put him down. Then at about 5 months, we started putting him down before he was quite asleep, then when he was just drowsy etc and he settled himself to sleep.

Enjoy cuddling your sleeping baby while it lasts!

My baby will go down awake and then sleep but he only did this from about 5 months, until then I would hold and feed him to sleep.

From about 3 months I would put him in his cot awake but drowsy and would place my hand on his chest while shhhhhhhing. If he cried then I would pick him up. I didnt do this EVERY time I put him down but about 40% of the time. Eventually he would be happy lying there and eventually from about 5 months would go to sleep.

It can take along time to do this (took me 2 months) and you might be expecting too much at this point. There isn't a cut off point where they suddenly cant learn to do this so dont worry and just do what works.

I fed to sleep or used dummy or rocked til 6 / 7 months. Took him only a little time to learn then how to settle self. I sat next to him and he did cry a little but ever since has happily gone to sleep alone in the dark.Now he crawls around and stands up and then lies down and goes to sleep without a peep. I think they are able to settle alone once they are older - but under 3 months I really wouldn't even try!

I thought I would be feeding or rocking to sleep until my DD left home!

But now at 8 months I have started putting her down after I've rocked her a bit but she is still awake and then stroking her in her cot for a bit and she goes to sleep

I don't think she was ready until now but it's been surprisingly stress free.

So don't worry about it - just do what works now and it will come eventually

I don't buy any of this 'it's important to self soothe' nonsense. It's bloody handy for the parents if they can do it, yes, but I wouldn't get het up about it - it's entirely natural and normal for a baby (especially one so young) to need to be fed/rocked/cuddled/soothed to sleep.

Plenty of time later down the line to work on the whole bedtime thing.

Okay, I'll not think about it too much for now. Anything for an easy life, and feeding him off is certainly convenient and reliable. Having said that, I've put him in the sling to wear around the flat for the first time today, and he dropped off straight away, so I think I'll be using this quite a bit now that DP's gone back to work, to give my breasts a break from constant nibbling.