How did you teach self soothing?

kes3237 · October 2009

My DD is 16 weeks and it is time to teach her to put her self to sleep. I feel like I spend my entire day either nursing or rocking her to sleep! I feel like I am good at recognizing her need to sleep and she is on a self-set schedule of 4-5 naps a day going to bed around 7 pm (usually wakes only once). I have seen her (on the monitor) put herself back to sleep before (only at night) so I know she can do it. If I try to put her down during the day for her nap (even if I know she's drowsy) she cries. I haven't let her CIO before. Is this the answer? How long did you let your baby CIO? What techniques have you used to teach putting self to sleep?

nasmith882 · October 2009

I am totally not the Zen master of babies but with my LO I would let him fuss and cry until I felt uncomfortable with his tone, how loud or what ever...I guess just till I felt like he was getting worse and not calming down at all. I would pick him up and calm him down and then put him back down. We did this for 3days during nap time..usually he would wear down after like 20 minutes of this...he figured out he just had to lay there. GL

SAMANTHAGP · October 2009

We've probably been doing it since he was about 3 or 4 weeks old. If I knew he was full, dry, warm, etc I would just let him stay in his crib. Sometimes the pacifier would help, he would spit it out maybe once and I would put it back in and he would fall asleep.

What seems to help when he's just fussing is me petting his head. I stroke downward to his brow and he closes his eyes as I get closer to his brow. A few times stroking down and he shuts his eyes for good.

But we've never been the kind to constantly pick him up and rock him to sleep.

aynjc · October 2009

You said it yourself, you know when LO is ready for a nap. I would just do my normal routine...change her, feed and rock, and when she was done eating (asleep or not) I would put her down. She used to cry and I would just time it...started with 5 minutes. You know your LO's cry. If my DD was screaming, I would go back in, but if she was just wining, I would let her go and she would put herself to sleep.

Now she just rolls over and sucks her fingers when I put her down. She is rarely sleeping when I put her down.

Jennilynn · October 2009

nasmith882:
I am totally not the Zen master of babies but with my LO I would let him fuss and cry until I felt uncomfortable with his tone, how loud or what ever...I guess just till I felt like he was getting worse and not calming down at all. I would pick him up and calm him down and then put him back down. We did this for 3days during nap time.

This is what we did for naps. We also had a GREAT night-time sleeper, but naps were weird. He eventually got to a point where he was not able to fall asleep on us anymore and was just getting overly tired, and after a couple days of complete melt-downs because he couldn't get to sleep, we did what I guess you could call a mini-ferber. We went in every 2-3 mins to snuggle for a min. Sometimes I would rub his back or pat his toosh until he completely calmed down, but I tried not to pick him up unless he was REALLY upset. When it occasionally went from fussing/whining to full on CRYING I would get him out of bed. But this only happened a couple times within the first few weeks. After the 1st nap he pretty much went to sleep on his own within 5-10 mins. Now he just conks out as soon as we put him in bed.

Ambeerose · October 2009

I think this is easier if a baby sucks his/her thumb which my lo does. At 3 mos I started putting him down drowsy but awake and it has worked pretty easily since then. I probably could have tried this earlier but didn't want to. Smile

I put him down drowsy and if he isn't asleep all the way or starts fussing I pat his bottom or his back or like the pp said I also rub his head from front to back which seems pretty soothing. GL

Want a personalized experience?

How did you teach self soothing?

Re: How did you teach self soothing?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards