Putting LO to bed

jkchs2003 · February 2012

How do you put LO to bed?

I am still rocking/bouncing LO to sleep. I was just wondering if I am the only one still doing this. If I put LO in her crib awake, drowsy, etc she will scream her head off like someone is hurting her, she is such a drama queen sometimes. Unless she is in her car seat, then she will cry for few seconds and then doze off. I am not that worried about it, but I am thinking about working towards a change.

Syncronicity09 · February 2012

I rock him as part of our bedtime routine, but just until he is relaxed - which sometimes takes awhile! Then I put him in his crib awake. He does cry, and sometimes screams. But he cried less and less as time went on, and he started sleeping better throughout the night as well. It was hard to listen to him cry, and still is when he really gets going. But we check on him at regular intervals, give him his pacifier and blanket and lay him back down if he is standing or crawling. Last night it took 11 minute to get him to sleep, but he was really sick (pneumonia!) for 2 weeks and we rocked him to sleep then, so we are starting over a little.

JsMama11 · February 2012

I put J in his crib wide awake....and usually giggling. He has gone down this way ever since we introduced a lovey back at 5 months. Have you tried a lovey? J plays with his (sucks on it, rubs it on his face) for a few minutes while he is winding down.

Telly21182 · February 2012

I only rock him if he's having a hard time falling asleep but I know he's exhausted, and it's way past bedtime. This doesn't happen that often though - usually only when he's been waking up at 5:00am lately.

For normal bedtime we do (bath), bottle, book, cuddle-time, bed. He generally starts to fall asleep after the bottle, but perks up when I'm reading to him so we do a little cuddle time so he can unwind from the book. I put him down when he's nearly out, but still awake.

amanda1680 · February 2012

We do bath (every other night), then PJs, nurse, read books, and put to bed awake. She is usually asleep within a few minutes and rarely cries. Putting her to bed hasn't been our problem (***KNOCK ON WOOD***), it's the night wakings.

Nurse Lisa · February 2012

We do jammies, book, bottle and then she goes down awake and 95% of the time doesn't cry or even really fuss. This is after Ferber though. Before Ferber (as of 3 weeks ago), we were rocking, holding, etc until she was out and then transferring to crib. If she woke during the transfer we were back to square one!

JavaVino910 · February 2012

amanda1680:
We do bath (every other night), then PJs, nurse, read books, and put to bed awake. She is usually asleep within a few minutes and rarely cries. Putting her to bed hasn't been our problem (***KNOCK ON WOOD***), it's the night wakings.

Pretty much the same for us, except I nurse at the end and she usually goes in her crib awake, but REALLY sleepy. The night wakings are still our issue, too.

How does your LO do during the night and at naps? If she is sleeping through the night, I would personally be hesitant to mess with a good thing. If you think your LO has associated falling asleep with being rocked and wakes up multiple times in the night and has to be rocked back to sleep, then you probably need to do some sleep training.

bestmaid6 · February 2012

E goes to bed wide wake awake or a little milk drunk. We used to rock him for forever and put him down asleep, but we finally had to put an end to it. We moved his bedtime up and set a regular bedtime routine. At first we would let him fuss for five minutes before going in to "rescue" him. At first it took two visits, then one, now none.

We also got a video monitor which let us know when we needed to go in before the five minute limit, like if he got stuck in the corner of the crib.

We started this around 4.5-5 months, he's now just over 7 months are goes to bed and all naps on his own with very little to no crying. I think we just over tired and couldn't calm himself down, but now he's a pro as long as we don't keep him up too long in between sleeps.

jcsumm0 · February 2012

I nurse her to sleep.

jellybeanjean · February 2012

He goes down wide awake for naps and at night. Started that somewhere around a couple months old, as the rocking/bouncing/shushing was getting old; it took him a few days to get used to it, but no issues since. He talks to himself, scoots around, chews on the sheet, and eventually falls asleep.

DS1 was a completely odd child in that he HATED to be rocked to sleep. From day one, unless he fell asleep nursing (at bedtime only, and probably only for a month or so), if you tried to rock him at all when he knew it was nap time, he'd go berserk. When he was 9 or 10 months, he'd point to the crib if you even TRIED to go sit in the rocking chair with him.

SarahKate31 · February 2012

Bedtime routine is bath (if it's a bath night), PJs, bottle in our room, then rocked in his room until he's drowsy (usually <5 mins), then put down awake. He falls asleep on his own within a few minutes (no crying).

That's how it is now, post-sleep-training. We used to rock him to sleep, then try to lay him down asleep but either a) he'd wake up instantly, or b) he'd wake up 45 mins later. It went on for hours every night which is why we started sleep training.

jkchs2003 · February 2012

JavaVino910:

amanda1680:
We do bath (every other night), then PJs, nurse, read books, and put to bed awake. She is usually asleep within a few minutes and rarely cries. Putting her to bed hasn't been our problem (***KNOCK ON WOOD***), it's the night wakings.

Pretty much the same for us, except I nurse at the end and she usually goes in her crib awake, but REALLY sleepy. The night wakings are still our issue, too.

How does your LO do during the night and at naps? If she is sleeping through the night, I would personally be hesitant to mess with a good thing. If you think your LO has associated falling asleep with being rocked and wakes up multiple times in the night and has to be rocked back to sleep, then you probably need to do some sleep training.

She STTN, so that is why I am somewhat hesitant. But, I do know that she is able to go back to sleep after waking. I have heard her over the monitor before and she would play for 5-10 minutes and then quiet again. It's just frustrating sometimes to rock her since if she isn't fully asleep when laid down she will wake back up and it's like we never started.

Really it didn't start to bother me until this week. She is all the sudden not wanting to go to bed until 9/10. She use to go down at 8/8:30 no problem. I tried taking away her late nap. At that point she would fall asleep at 7:30, sleep for 30 minutes and then be up for another hour or two.

gemini2005 · February 2012

We put his sleep sack on, read him a few books and then I give him a bottle. I usually let him play with the twilight turtle for a few minutes and then I lay him down in the crib awake with his pacifier. He will wake up once during the night around 4am for the paci and then gets up again at 5:30 to eat. We did a combination of Ferber and No Cry Sleep Solution to get him to the point where he could fall asleep on his own. It was really rough at times but life is much better now. Good luck!

monkeysmama62 · February 2012

Normally she goes down sleepy gets a bottle an watches her aquarium. Lately she's been super clingy and needs to be rocked to sleep.

Jills83 · February 2012

The routine varies a little from night to night. Most nights we do bath, massage, book, nursing, then in the crib awake. Some nights if we are late for the schedule he will fall asleep nursing.

When he is awake we use THIS and he giggles and stares at it in awe for a while. After about 3-5 minutes he will lay down and go to sleep on his own.

barefoot barista · February 2012

She usually falls asleep on her bottle. Sometimes she wakes when I put her down, but she just babbles herself to sleep.

LowTalker23 · February 2012

We are still rocking for both naps and bedtime. He'll wake up briefly as we lay him down but a few pats on the butt and he goes back. I'm okay with this.

simbaby · February 2012

Nurse Lisa:
We do jammies, book, bottle and then she goes down awake and 95% of the time doesn't cry or even really fuss. This is after Ferber though. Before Ferber (as of 3 weeks ago), we were rocking, holding, etc until she was out and then transferring to crib. If she woke during the transfer we were back to square one!

This is us now. I'm sooo ready to do Ferber but "something" always comes up. First it's shots, bad reaction to the flu shot, teething, traveling abroad and us going out of town this weekend (leaving LO with family thus not starting training until we return). I look forward to be where you're at.

amberpro · February 2012

I usually rock to sleep. If I put him down drowsy, he will usually go to sleep unless he's over tired. But I like rocking him, so I feel no need to change our routine. Especially since he goes down easy and STTN.

kas80 · February 2012

I nurse her to sleep still. She's started waking up every hour now though, we aren't sure if it's teething related but if it continues we're going to have to stop the nursing and do sleep training round two.

Birdies08 · February 2012

We bedshare, so I snuggle and nurse her to sleep. Sometimes MH walks around with her to help her settle, if need be.

emilys629 · February 2012

Solids, story, bath, pjs, and then I nurse him in our glider. Sometimes I rock a little because he comes home from daycare and it's a whirlwind to get him to bed, so it settleshim a bit (and is calming for me!). I put him in the crib drowsy but awake and he STTN.

imoverit · February 2012

I nurse him to sleep for bed. Always knocks him out.

PurdueMama14 · February 2012

Up until a few weeks ago, I always rocked him to sleep (and he always fought it too). Now I give him a kiss good night, put him in his crib, turn on the sleep sheep, and walk out of the room. 90% of the time, we don't hear a peep from him, but there are some nights (like tonight) that he fusses and I go back in and give him his paci and he's back out.

This is how we do naps as well and it's been like he's a new child.

Reed was never a horrible sleeper, but he definitely went through a sleep regression, so we did Ferber and I don't regret it a bit.

Mason n me · February 2012

Sometimes Mason will fall asleep during his last bottle, but I usually have to put him down awake. It takes him about 10 minutes and then he's out. When I don't hear Scout's bedtime music anymore I go check on him.

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