How do you put your LO to bed?

Golf424 · December 2011

Just curious how everyone else is doing this. I am still rocking her to sleep at night. But doctor said she should start being laid to bed and putting herself to sleep.

What are you doing??

SarahP15 · December 2011

Bath, nurse, put in crib, turn on soother, and walk away. Usually he cries for a few minutes and then falls asleep. If he cries for more than 5 minutes, we go in there and comfort him but patting his back and then walk away. If he does start crying again, it's usually just for a minute or two and then he's out.

cassoppea · December 2011

Nursing, but we're working on stopping that habit. I'm at a loss for what to do instead so we're just letting her kind of figure it out on her own. It takes her about 30 minutes of babbling next to us and then she gets sleepy. Sometimes we have to let her fuss a bit but she's getting better. If she gets very upset, then I will still nurse her to sleep, but I try to pull away before she's completely sleeping so she can try to get used to falling asleep without it.

monkeysmama62 · December 2011

Give her a bottle, give her a blanket and her binkie, turn on her aquarium and walk outta her room. She falls asleep within 10 mins of me walking out.

CarlaAndJames · December 2011

put her in jammies, read a book, lights out/humidifier on/sleepsheep on, rock/nurse, then put in bed awake. We did a few days of ferber and now I can lay her down and never hear a peep!

LauraOTR · December 2011

Some nights we rock him to sleep, some nights we can put him down awake. It just depends how wound up he is. We had a super busy day today, so he needed to be rocked tonight.

waterfall11 · December 2011

Bath, pjs, bottle, hold upright 20 min and then put in crib and walk out. Sometimes she falls asleep while we are holding her but she needs that time so she doesnt spit her bottle up. She always goes down awake for naps (change diaper, sing a song, lay in crib and walk out) so I figure the times she falls asleep in our arms at night doesnt hurt her sleep habits.

Ashley40705 · December 2011

Bath, massage, dress, bottle, rock a little bit, crib (with sound machine)

MrsPBNJ0220 · December 2011

Bath, Lotion, Get dressed, Put him in our bed, give him a bottle, he falls asleep while eating. Then we move him to his bassinet in our room. I am nervous though he has been in the rock and play and we are going to move him to his pack and play where he will not feel as secure, we will see if things are so easy.

RobinSparkles81 · December 2011

DH and I do the routine together. After her bath it's PJs, we all get in our big bed and she cuddles in one parent's arms while the other reads a book. Then I bring her into her room, then DH kisses her goodnight, turns on the nightlight and I nurse her and put her in her crib, awake,with her lovie and paci. She usually falls asleep pretty quickly but we've been doing the same routine since birth (except she used to be in our room now she's in hers) so she anticipates it.

If she cries I go to her and it's usually just cause she rolled over and she doesn't like to sleep on her tummy...she is very good at falling asleep

Now if only I could figure out how to get her to STAY asleep all night lol

ladybear06 · December 2011

bath, lotion, diaper/jammies, snack (4oz), story, then laid down with nuk, blankie, and shark. she usually plays for about 2-10mins and then falls asleep. since we moved her to her crib about 4 months she hasn't had any problem putting herself to sleep (knock on wood). bed time routine starts at 7-7:30pm and ends about an hour later.

MommaA117 · December 2011

after the solids, bath and reading I nurse her to sleep. I won't lie. I tried to lay her down tired. She screamed for a while. I could not do CIO and decided I am fine with nursing her to sleep....for now

kas80 · December 2011

We still nurse to sleep which our pediatrician is going to hate hearing at her 6 month appt this Friday. We have so many sleep problems though that this is the least of our problems.

sunset+skies · December 2011

MommaA117:
after the solids, bath and reading I nurse her to sleep. I won't lie. I tried to lay her down tired. She screamed for a while. I could not do CIO and decided I am fine with nursing her to sleep....for now

I don't nurse him to sleep, but I still snuggle him to sleep, and keep him snuggling on my chest for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour once he's out, before he gets put to bed.

D will NOT go down tired, and I can't do CIO either. I'm on leave until June, so if we're still here by the time he's 9 months, I'll try something else. I'll have 3 months to figure it out, but I'll know he's had plenty of time to work on falling asleep on his own.

rainstar752 · December 2011

Bath, lotion, jammies/sleep sack, bottle, sound machine, then set her in her crib. She used to just fall asleep when she was <4 months old but now she'll usually cry for anywhere from 2-10 minutes and then fall asleep. It was hard to listen to at first (we did Ferber) but now she sleeps through the night, which she wasn't doing when I started rocking/pacifier/shushing to sleep.

Naps are a different story though- I rock her for naps. For some reason she's never been good at putting herself to sleep during the day.

Jills83 · December 2011

Bath, pjs, nurse, he fusses in my arms while I force him to let me rock and snuggle him Embarrassed , heartbroken mama gives in and lays him down awake, he's out like a light in 30 seconds. (I'm still not over the fact that he is a big independent baby that doesn't need me to rock him to sleep.)

PS: My two cents. Don't let your pedi force you into something that isn't working for your LO yet. If you still want to rock, nurse, or whatever to get LO to sleep...then do it until you and LO are ready to move on. They are physicians...not the end all/ be all of parenting advice.

march2008 · December 2011

We give her a bath every other night, then I bring her into her room with dim lights only, get her in her PJs and sleep sack, then I shut the lights off and nurse her in the glider in her room while I sing her lullabies. She falls asleep that way at night 98% of the time.

We still haven't been successful with letting her soothe herself to sleep alone in the crib at night, but I honestly don't try it very often b/c our little routine has been working well for the past 2 months. We used to have a nightly cry fest (30 minutes to an hour of crying) for her first 3 months of life. I'm so thankful just to have a peaceful night time routine at this point that I don't care to change it right now!!

CarlaAndJames · December 2011

Especially if your LO is sleeping fairly well at night, I don't see anything wrong with nursing & rocking them to sleep!

The main point of a lot of Ferber's book is sleep assocations. It's not that your baby needs to hurry and grow up and learn to sleep on their own, it's just that you want them to be able to fall back asleep easily on their own when they wake at night. If they're waking up all night and can ONLY be soothed by the breast, that might be a reason to consider no longer nursing them to sleep. That was the case with us. She associated falling asleep with nursing, and even though she wasn't hungry, just couldn't fall back asleep at night without it.

Just wanted to point that out, since a lot of people seem to feel like they're spoiling their baby or something by rocking them. If it's not causing sleep problems, don't feel guilty about it, enjoy it!

jkchs2003 · December 2011

Most nights she get a bottle and falls asleep while drinking. I usually have to keep waking her up to finish it (otherwise she will wake up in a hour wanting the rest of it). Other nights she will finish her bottle and I will rock her until she is sleepy then lay her down, unless she is in one of those moods, then I will rock her until she has been out for at least 5 minutes. But, then we have nights, like last night, where she won't have anything to do with me rocking her. Those nights I lay her in our bed and fed her while she is laying there and then she will drift off to sleep after her bottle. There is something magical about our bed, I swear.

Gwyneddlesliegrace · December 2011

Either I nurse and rock her, or Mr walks her after I nurse her. Honestly it depends on who she wants.

jcsumm0 · December 2011

Playtime in her room, put on pjs/change diaper while singing to her, lights low, dad reads a bedtime book, nurse to sleep, I hold her until she's *really* asleep, swaddle her, put her in bed w/white noise and humidifier on.

klv · December 2011

Depends on the day. Sometimes she will fall asleep on her last bottle - love those days! Sometimes I can just lay her in her crib and walk away. She will babble for 5-10 mins then fall asleep.

Lately it has been a struggle since she has been sick and routine has been messed with. She fights sleep and will only go to sleep by nursing. If I try to pull back before she is completely out she will scream and we start all over. She will not fall for the bait and switch with the paci. I need a detachable boob.

Golf424 · December 2011

Thanks for all responding. I feel better now about what I am doing!

The_Birds_04 · December 2011

We rock to sleep every night. Most of the time he is out before we put him in his crib but on occasion his eyes pop open and I still lay him down and sometime he will fall asleep with his musical aquarium playing other times we have to start rocking again. I am going to discuss with pedi on Friday to see if we should start to break the rocking habit but for now I love that time we have to snuggle before bed.

Turtle143 · December 2011

After her bath or sponge bath routine, it's shh-ing and patting with Sleep Sheep/music on. She actually outgrew being held to sleep. If she is held when she is falling asleep, she'd whine and arch her back because what she actually wants it to lay on her left side in her crib.

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