Teaching my baby to go to sleep

[molly86]

How do I teach my baby to go to sleep on his own. He is 7 months old. Ever since he was born he has either gone to sleep by falling asleep on the boob or being rocked to sleep. If I put him down awake he screams and screams. Doesn't matter how much I try to reassure him. He's not falling asleep on the boob very often now, so basically every bed time I have to deal with him screaming. What else can I do? This isn't nice for either of us

 

[Countrygirl13]

Following! My LO is 13 months and every night I pace the floor rocking and singing for about 20 mins before she nods off as I have done since she was born. She is getting heavy!! Putting her down drowsy but awake just leads to 'you have abandoned me in the dark, cold cot' sobbing that takes her ages to calm down from.

You say that he screams every night. Won't rocking work? Any chance you could finish his last nap of the day earlier so he is more tired and willing to go to sleep being rocked?

 

[SarahBear]

I'm in the "wait it out" camp. My oldest will be three soon and at night I nurse her and then sit in bed next to her while she falls asleep. She also has been listening to music to help her fall asleep. My youngest is 6.5 months old and he nurses to sleep at night. When it comes to naps, my husband puts my daughter (the older one) in the carrier and walks around the block to get her to fall asleep. We use the carrier to get my son to sleep as well. On weekends (I'm a working mom), I will sometimes nurse him in bed or just hold him to get him to nap.

 

[JessyG]

I also waited it out and now at two we have had about a week of falling asleep on her own in her bed without me there. Literally a night night baby see you tomorrow. Occasionally she will call for her for a quick cuddle them back in her bed.

This may not last but I am definitely in the the 'let them learn it in their own time' camp. My girl started sleeping through the night consistently from 2 but we have had about 50% sttn since 16 months.

They will get there.

 

[Wugz22]

My first born was the same way. It was a long process to get him to fall asleep on his own. You just have to make tiny changes little by little. For example, I would rock him to sleep to the same set of songs every night, until he was completely asleep. Then, I'd use the same routine and put him down the very moment his eyes were closing, and I'd pat him until he was good and asleep. Then I'd put him down when his eyes started to droop and pat until he was asleep. This transition was the hardest, and sometimes took some fussing/crying/picking up and starting over. But once you can pat him to sleep while he is awake in the crib, it's easier from there on out, just cut back the patting little by little. Now my little one goes down wide awake and likes us to leave the door open so he can hear us and see the lights from the kitchen until he falls asleep on his own. Took a couple month to get there though. Good luck!

 

[JessyG]

Is there a,chance he is overtired? Could you rock him in the buggy rather than your arms. Would white noise help?

 

[Perplexed]

My oldest is like this and still gets really upset when sleepy whether sleepy for a nap or for night time. She just doesn't want to be in her bed. We haven't done anything other than let her fall asleep in our bed and transfer her to her own after.

my second falls asleep by himself and it was nothing I did...just different babies.

 

[londonangel]

The Health Visitor told me last week that I have to put mine down to sleep awake. Little Miss doesn't like it much! I feed her, have to wake her because she falls asleep on the breast, then lay her in the cot and read a story. I then kiss her goodnight and she screams the place down. I go in after two minutes and say goodnight again and give her a little hug and lay her down. Then I return after another five minutes of required. Have been doing this since Saturday and only once have I had to return.

With my first child it took less than a week to be able to just leave her in the cot awake and have her go to sleep with no crying. It isn't fun listening to them cry but in my experience the approach works - only if you do it consistently though and stick to it otherwise you give the baby mixed signals.

 

[londonangel]

Clearly I am not in the 'let them learn in their own time camp'. I have friends who had trouble with getting their kids to bed for ages and were jealous that mine went to bed so easily but they didn't want to try the approach we used even though it worked.

 

[MindUtopia]

No, I honestly don't think you can teach them to sleep, but you can support them until they reach the point when they do it on their own. For our daughter, this happened around 11 ish months. Up until then, I'd always fed or worn her to sleep or laid down next to her and cuddled her to sleep. Then she just started to be happy to lie down sleepy but awake and go to sleep on her own. Certainly, there have been periods of disrupted sleep since then (like with teething or taking away her dummy or when she was dropping naps), but she's 2.5 now and she has her milk and we have a cuddle and then she climbs into bed and I leave her to fall asleep. We didn't have to do anything to make that happen. It just did when she was ready - this from a baby who slept every single nap until 9 months in a wrap with me or daddy. We did absolutely everything that everyone says will create 'bad habits' and it didn't. When she was ready to sleep independently, she just did. In the meantime, just find new things that work for you. At 8 months, I started to rock her until sleepy and then lie her down and hold her hand until she fell asleep. I've played music. I've danced with her. I've read a story while she lay in her bed and got sleepy. We've changed naps and mealtimes around. Basically, just trying lots of new things eventually hit on what worked until it just started to happen on its own.