Babies: 0 - 3 Months

How do you get your LO to sleep or do they just fall asleep?

Our LO will fall asleep on our shoulder while we burp him after he eats.  Sometimes we will rock him but mainly, just on our shoulder and then we put him in his crib but sometimes he gets up a few minutes later and we have to start the process all over again.

My cousin has a LO as well as said that they never rock him to sleep, they just put him in his crib and he falls asleep. 

Does anyone else's LO not just magically go to sleep on their own?  Am I going to screw myself over by rocking him or patting him on the back to get him to sleep?  Anyone have any suggestions?

Re: How do you get your LO to sleep or do they just fall asleep?

  • DD will fall asleep in her swing or if you rock her. She wakes up as soon as you put her down in her crib or bassinet though. Which is why we bed-share.
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  • We have awake time during the day after he eats. Then when he is drowsy we lay him down for his nap.

    At night sometimes he's asleep and sometimes he's still drowsy when we put him down.  I would rather him be awake/drowsy when we put him down.

    Personally I would not get into the habit of rocking/nursing your baby to sleep b/c they become reliant on it but that is just my opinion.

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  • We lay her in bed with us when she's awake. She'll look around for a little bit, I'll cuddle her, and she'll be asleep in about half an hour. We bedshare because she needs to be cuddled throughout the night to stay asleep. Kind of wondering how to break her of that habit. =)
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  • Our little guy likes to be left alone to fall asleep.  During the day I'll put him in the Moby or his swaddled in his bouncy chair to fall asleep, and at night I nurse him asleep.  Sometimes when I put him down in the crib he'll wake up a bit, but generally he's out again within a few minutes.
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  • Our DD would fall asleep while burping also.

    Recently (the last 1 week), we've begun swaddling her using the Escape Proof Swaddle. We give her a pacifier, and swaddle her, and lay her in her Pack n Play, and turn on the FP Aquarium, and if she doesnt lose her soother, she's asleep "by herself" within 10-20 minutes.

    (Escape Proof Swaddle, see video here.)

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  • Here's my journey:

    First six weeks of life- she would only sleep in someone arms or next to someone.  We ended up having to bed-share, which was something I hadn't planned on doing.

    2nd month of life- we continued to bed-share but during the day was able to get her to sleep in her swing and on occasion the PnP.  With the swing we would put her in while awake and the swinging made her drowsy.  During that time we weren't as in tune with her sleepy cues.

    3rd month of life to present time- we have been transitioning her into the crib.  She is now able to sleep on her own.  We do various things.  I nurse her and then put her down.  We are able to read her sleepy cues now so if she's not hungry at the same time we just lay her down.  Most of the time she's awake/drowsy when we lay her down.  She'll go through a fussy stage for about 10-20 min. and eventually falls alseep.  We have been able to figure out the different stages that she goes through to fall asleep so now we're able to tell when to leave her alone to let her fall asleep on her own and when to pick her up to help her fall asleep.

    You will eventually get there.  Do what works for you now and don't worry if you think you're forming bad habits.  Your LO is too young to be able to form bad OR good habits.  As much as I hate to think, "Wow, they got their baby to sleep in the crib since Day 1?"  I have to remind myself that every child develops differently and at different paces.  If I force her to do something she's not ready just because the Jones's baby did it already that may have problems in the long run.  As long as you're not hurting yourself or your child do what works for you.  Whether that's nursing, rocking, dancing, whatever!

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  • imageBrittKav:
    We lay her in bed with us when she's awake. She'll look around for a little bit, I'll cuddle her, and she'll be asleep in about half an hour. We bedshare because she needs to be cuddled throughout the night to stay asleep. Kind of wondering how to break her of that habit. =)

    It took us 8 months to break this habit and this is exactly how it started with us and DD#1! We did it in one night of  using a strictly-by-the-book CIO technique (would ONLY do this technique after reading the Ferber book). It felt like heaven that first night we had her OUT of our bed!!! She is now an awesome sleeper in her own bed! We will not be co-sleeping with DD#2.

  • I rock and/or pat his butt to get him to sleep.  Sometimes he'll fall asleep while he's eating/burping and I can then ixnay the rocking.
  • DD falls asleep in her bouncy chair or her newborn napper on the PNP if they are vibrating. I'm afraid when we transition her to her crib at night she won't be able to fall asleep without it shaking.
  • I do what you're doing.  I turn down lights, change her diaper and give her a long feeding.  She dozes and I try to move her to the cosleeper.  It usually works.  Just putting her down doesn't work for us.
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  • We go with the "EASY" model (Eat, Activity, Sleep, equals easy time for You -- or something like that) in the Baby Wise books. Aubriana actually fell into this pattern naturally, but we wanted to avoid her becoming dependent on a bottle to go to sleep, so we feed her, play with her some (unless it's a night feeding, then we skip this step), and lay her down when she's drowsy. This way, she learns to fall asleep on her own and no be dependent on one of us to get her into a dead sleep. We do, however, rock/hold her to get her calm and settled into her droswy state. We, however, don't mind having to do this -- the more snuggles, the better!! :-)
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  • No matter what you do, your teenager is not going to demand being rocked to sleep every night.  I promise!

     I nurse to sleep, or sometimes wear her in the moby wrap.  Our almost  2 year old goes to sleep in his toddler bed just fine most nights... I don't think our cosleeping and nursing to sleep have messed his sleep up at all.  He does come get in our bed sometime before morning, but I'm ok with that.  They're only little once, and it is our privilege to pour out the love, the cuddles, and the security so they can grow to be confident kids. :)

     If your baby goes to sleep easily when you lay them down, whether totally alone or with back patting, etc, then great... but I don't mind the extra cuddles it takes to get my little ones to sleep! :)

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