Self settling, how?

[pandysmum]

My health visitor has impressed on me the importance of getting a baby to self settle to sleep, until now my 8 wk old usually dozes off after food and goes to bed after his last feed but any attempts on putting him down when i know he is tired have so far been futile, any tips or advice.

I began by feeding to sleep and putting DD down asleep. Then we moved to feeding to sleep and rousing her gently just before putting her down - only to the opening-one-eye stage of wakefulness. Gradually slightly more awake. She is now 9mo and still feeds until she's practically asleep before bed, but a few times has then woken up completely as I put her down. I put her down, tuck her in, kiss her and walk out and she stays quiet and falls asleep.

I think it can be a gradual process, to be honest. What you don't want to do is make your son associate the moses basket/cot with being deserted!

However, others may have other advice too!

8 week old,Pls don't worry Bub's is tiny and won't be tiny for long!!!
My DS is 9mth and still feeds to sleep at night, Not a prob for us.

pandysmum, I agree that 8 weeks is tiny, and some babies are better at going to sleep than others. I started to try to put DS (5 weeks) down in his cot before he fell asleep so he would learn to self-settle a bit.

Result: an over-tired hystericaly baby, who I've discovered really struggles to get to sleep, even with help. I've abandoned the attempt at self-settling for a few months at least and now just go with the flow (which usually means cuddling him to sleep). Much less stressful.

My DD is 7 months old and I've taught her to self settle (as was breast fed to sleep until now) in a couple of days. 8 weeks is tiny plus won't have a routine during the day so no regular naps etc. The only thing I would suggest is trying to put your DC down to bed at night awake if possible.

Thanks for all those messages, i guess i'm trying to 'jump the gun' a bit, he is still so tiny. Thanks for the reassurance. Smile