how do you put your baby to sleep?

pria2004 · July 2010

I have been trying to read up on dos and donts of putting your baby to sleep. couple of things i have learned in to have a nap time routine.But my main question remains unanswered, when you see the cues that the baby is tired or sleepy what do you do next? do you walk him to sleep? rock him? pat him down? hold him? and at what point do you lay him in his/her crib?

groovygrl · July 2010

Soooo hard to know until you have your baby. Different babies respond to different things & different parents have different approaches. In the beginning we rocked & held ours. I tried as hard as I could to put them down 'drowsy but awake' to try to instill good sleep habits but one was colicky so that was not successful for her & the other did ok sometimes but not others.

You'll find what works!!!

JGirl2005 · July 2010

I think everyone will give you a different answer. My baby never did a crib - seriously. He just hated it so we bed shared (and still do and he is 18m) He also never did drowsy in the crib and fell asleep on his own. yes, some babies do that but I don't think that is the norm.

I nursed to sleep for 11.5m. That is the only thing that would put him to sleep. I rocked him for naps until after a year. Now, he goes to sleep much better - not eating at all, but sometimes I have to pat his back quite a bit. (and sleep with him)

I never walked to sleep because my son was heavy but my DH does that sometimes.

All babies are different. We didn't want to do CIO and when we tried one time it didn't work well for us. My ex-boss has 3 kids and says that CIO didn't work for all his kids. He said each kiddo is different.

Mrs.LisaP · July 2010

When my baby is ready to sleep for naps or bedtime I do the same thing...turn on her sound machine, rock her in her glider and pat her back for a few min. so she knows its time for bed, then put her in her crib awake on her tummy (shes a tummy sleeper), turn on her seahorse, and walk out the door. We do this every.single.time. at naps and bedtime.

RoxBride · July 2010

The first few weeks, we didn't do anything other than wait for her to fall asleep and then lie her down.

After about 6 weeks, when she started to get drowsy, we'd lie her down and she'd happily fall asleep watching her mobile. After that, we never put her down asleep, always drowsy but awake, or sometimes fully awake. She always put herself to sleep.

To this day, she just goes in her crib wide awake with her lovey and blanket and puts herself to sleep.

pria2004 · July 2010

JGirl2005:
I think everyone will give you a different answer. My baby never did a crib - seriously. He just hated it so we bed shared (and still do and he is 18m) He also never did drowsy in the crib and fell asleep on his own. yes, some babies do that but I don't think that is the norm.

I nursed to sleep for 11.5m. That is the only thing that would put him to sleep. I rocked him for naps until after a year. Now, he goes to sleep much better - not eating at all, but sometimes I have to pat his back quite a bit. (and sleep with him)

I never walked to sleep because my son was heavy but my DH does that sometimes.

All babies are different. We didn't want to do CIO and when we tried one time it didn't work well for us. My ex-boss has 3 kids and says that CIO didn't work for all his kids. He said each kiddo is different.

what is CIO?

pria2004 · July 2010

RoxBride:
The first few weeks, we didn't do anything other than wait for her to fall asleep and then lie her down.

After about 6 weeks, when she started to get drowsy, we'd lie her down and she'd happily fall asleep watching her mobile. After that, we never put her down asleep, always drowsy but awake, or sometimes fully awake. She always put herself to sleep.

To this day, she just goes in her crib wide awake with her lovey and blanket and puts herself to sleep.

oh my. what a blessing she is to have been able to sleep on her own early on!!

pria2004 · July 2010

Mrs.LisaP:
When my baby is ready to sleep for naps or bedtime I do the same thing...turn on her sound machine, rock her in her glider and pat her back for a few min. so she knows its time for bed, then put her in her crib awake on her tummy (shes a tummy sleeper), turn on her seahorse, and walk out the door. We do this every.single.time. at naps and bedtime.

what kind of sound machine do you have- white noise or calming music? Also what is the seahorse you menioned?

LucyPevensie · July 2010

There is no right answer - but when it comes to a newborn - you hold/rock/do whatever it takes to soothe that baby and help them calm down and/or sleep - they need to be responded to quickly. Down the road, when baby is older, there are a lot of different options and schools of thought.

PrincessShay80 · July 2010

Definately agree that every child is different- here is what we do- granted DD is EASY when it comes to sleeping- we have done not one ounce of sleep training and she sleeps through the night. DD has her bath around 8pm, then she has her last bottle- after that she will start rubbing her eyes (but shes still wide awake) I take her upstairs put her in her crib- turn her music on- she rolls over and goes to sleep. This is how it goes every night. So I'm pretty sure it's the routine of it all.

LVBlvd · July 2010

I rock Paige to sleep for every nap and at bedtime. I have done this since birth and have no plans of stopping! I don't believe in making bad habits like that. She won't want to be rocked forever, and when she wants me to stop, I will.

So you can do whatever you want!

ladychicago · July 2010

Anna always tends to be sleepy after she eats. So up until a few weeks ago, we would just put her down in her bassinet after a night feeding (around 9pm or 10pm). She was eating every 3-4 hours every night, though, so it wasn't like she was going down "for the night."

The last week, though (so around 7 weeks), we've actually gotten into a bit of a routine to help her sleep longer at night. Whenever she feeds after 8pm, we let her nurse, and then over the next hour, we dim the lights, calm any noise, and offer her 1-2 more ounces in a bottle. Once she downs most of the bottle, we'll take her into a dark room and rock her until she starts to get drowsy (she is quiet and starts to blink very slowly). I'll put her down in her crib when drowsy, but still awake, and she generally stays down.

Aliki · July 2010

The first month, the only way she'd sleep was with someone physically holding her. It wasn't good enough to sleep next to her-- she had to be held. Day or night, this was either in the cradle position (alternating between my mom and I, 24/7... we'd switch off between nap cycles to nap/pee/eat while the other person held her) or she'd sleep vertically on our chests with her face nuzzled in our neck. I can't say anybody in the house got much sleep that month. She refused the PNP, her crib, our bed, or any other form-- she'd just stay awake, get overtired, then cranky, then inconsolably wailing.

For second and third months, she'd sleep on her Boppy pillow next to me on the couch during the day, and snuggled in bed next to me at night.

Just starting two weeks ago (for her fourth month), we've been able to give her a bath at 8pm every day, put her in night clothes, I nurse her and MH carries her to her crib and puts her to sleep there. She sleeps for 3 - 5 hours, nurses again, then comes to bed with us and wakes at 6 am.

P.S. CIO = Crying It Out. It means letting your child learn through sleep training to self-soothe and put themselves to sleep without assistance from parents after you've soothed them and put them down. Once they are in their crib, no peeking and no picking them back up, no matter what!

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