When to put down to sleep awake?

buggy7

At what age is a good time to put LO in a crib drowsy but awake for naps and bed? My LO is 7 weeks and I want to start trying to get her to take naps on her own, but she usually just cries so I pick her up right away and rock her. She is swaddled. Is there a certain age where it works best?

mben1119

At least 4 months, if not after. LO needs to be able to self-soothe in order to go down drowsy but awake. 7 weeks is much too early.

Newsie96

I think it depends on your baby. My daughter went down around 3 months awake. But that was just for nighttime. Naps was and is a whole other issue.

buggy7

Thanks, just don't want to miss that window!

Starfish+77

So this may be a silly question, but for those that commented about LO being able to self-soothe first...how do you teach them how to self-soothe??? My DD unfortunately will not take a paci.  I've tried gluing it in her mouth but it didn't work ;-)

ForeverEverAfter

I think it depends on the baby. LO just started going to the bassinet at night awake and falling asleep herself sucking her hand, and she's 14.5 weeks. But for naps she did it on and off for ages. I'd put her in the boppy or swing covered with a blanket a

Ken&Anna

Kemare20:

Self soothing is a developmental progression rhat usually doesn't happen until around 5-6 months old. That is why so

sschwege

It just really depends on the baby.   With DD we started really trying at 4 months, we did the "Pick-up/Put-down" that pp mentioned.  It took a lot of time and work on our part.  We did finally get there, but I wonder if we should have w

AJKayakMomma

We stopped putting DD down sleeping at about 5ish weeks. Unpopular opinion here but she just screamed if you rocked her to sleep. I could lay her down and instantly she would stop and she'd be asleep in 5 minutes. All depends on the kid I guess.

virginiagirl11

Yep, wait until LO can self-soothe. That said, if you miss the "window" that the books talk about, all is not lost. Kids are not an exact science and are definitely trainable. You can still train LO a little ways down the road. My son refused to go to

DawnJM25

I guess it must depend on the baby, or the habits you start right away.  I have never rocked/held either of mine to sleep- I've always put them down awake and they go to sleep on their own.  This is not sleep training, this is developing a ha

bikramgirl

Kemare20:

Self soothing is a developmental progression rhat usually doesn't happen until around 5-6 months old. That is why