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April 2012 Moms
How long does it take to put your baby to sleep?
And how do they fall asleep?
Drowsy but awake never works for us, and didn't with DS either. I'm not ready to let her cry it out yet, but when we let her fuss for a few minutes, she just works herself up even more. If we rock or bounce her to sleep, it's a 20-30 minute process and we have to really bounce her...no simple rocking or walking will work. Then, it seems that 10-40 minutes later we're starting the process again. Once she's out, she used to sleep for a good 5-7 hr stretch but now shes waking every 3 hours again. Thought this would be easier the second time around, but it's just as frustrating!
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Re: How long does it take to put your baby to sleep?
Up until this week Evelyn would cry and cry and cry and nothing worked. I would rock her, nurse her, give her a binkie, etc. And she would eventually just stop and fall asleep. I would then lay her in her crib for the night.
Now, she has a bottle around 7ish and falls asleep on her own no matter where she is (chair, swing, floor) and then I just transfer her to her crib. Luckily when she's out she's gone for the night.
I'm guessing she's going through a burp in her patterns right now, whether it be a growth spurt or just a growing change. I'm sure she will get back into a good routine once she's over this. Hang in there!
My DS2 has put himself to sleep since we came home from the hospital - we got lucky, and also have let him fuss from the very beginning (not CIO, mind you)
But just so you don't hate me I have to mention that my DS1 was the way you describe your DD.. to a tee. DH had to do this quite aggressive Polynesian type dance to put him to sleep. Then he'd wake up as soon as he was put down. Repeat. x10. Exhausting!
Growth spurt?
In your case OP it sounds like a growth spurt or mental leap that's causing LO to suddenly sleep badly.. I bet it will pass, especially as she put herself to sleep until this point.
I'm not trying to start a debate, but I believe how well kids sleep is about half nature and half nurture. Our first needed to be rocked to sleep until we sleep trained at 5 months. So he sucked at sleep initially but maybe we didn't really help him, kwim. We were FTPs and we stressed and fussed over him. After Ferber he's been an excellent sleeper ever since. The baby is already a good sleeper, partly because we put him down without rocking from Day 1.
We're planning on doing Ferber sometime after four months. His sleep habits are partially our fault--as FTP's, we had the time to rock and soothe to sleep. Of course, he was also colicky. We DO let him fuss in his crib or swing, but he still stinks at falling asleep. Now that he's older, us rocking him seems to further stimulate him and keep him from sleep sometimes, but he can't put himself to sleep well yet-->thus the need for some sleep training in the future!
We plan on putting the next kid down without rocking from day 1.
I don't do drowsy but awake either. How long it takes varies. Sometimes she just passes out during her last feeding, and other times I have to pat and shush and rock for an hour.
Benny falls asleep on his own pretty well, but if he does get fussy I give him the pacifer and put my hand on his chest, the hand on the chest works really well, I dont know why though. He doesnt sleep very long, only 4-5 hours at a time at night, but he ussually falls asleep while Im feeding him. You can try the chest thing, it seems to calm him down.
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This helps J too if she starts squirming after I lay her in her crib. I think it's because before that, she's been laying on my chest.
I don't know if not rocking from the start will necessarily help every baby sleep well. Before DS was born, I read about putting down drowsy but awake and not forming bad habits by rocking and I was determined to follow that strategy. Well, it didn't last long. He doesn't just drift off while lying in his crib with some gentle pats on his back. Instead, he'll lay there and fuss...then cry...then scream, even with me picking him up every couple minutes to comfort him. So now I use his bouncy chair, swing, or I nurse him to sleep at night.
I felt really bad about not being able to follow the book's suggestion until I read on here how newborns can't self-soothe and might need rocking/patting/etc. It made me feel less pressure about how he was getting to sleep. Stupid book stressing me out!