Putting LO down awake

hadeelb · November 2014

How many of you actually do this this early on? I've tried and tried and it's hopeless. My LO is almost 10 weeks and am wondering if it's just too early to do this yet. I know it's to early for sleep training so I'm not letting him CIO, but practicing putting him down sleepy just does not work!

nstark2908 · November 2014

L is 5 weeks and we have been doing this since the beginning. I soothe him since he is too young to self-soothe, but it's never too young to start a routine.

Bella2425 · November 2014

Sometimes. I really think it depend on the kid. I rocked my oldest to sleep till he was almost 2 (and loved it, no regrets) but this one will let me put him down drowsy and will fall asleep on his own as long as he's sleepy enough. My oldest would never do that.

mana8503 · November 2014

I don't mean to, but she usually wakes up going from glider to pnp. I swaddle her legs, put in her paci, turn on the sound machine and go do my bathroom stuff (brush teeth, wash face , etc). She's usually asleep when I check on her. If she's fussy I pick her up and rock her in my arms until she's back asleep. We have night lights in our night stand lights so it's darkish.

rose913 · November 2014

We are struggling with this as well. She did great when she was in the rnp but at 6 weeks we moved her into her bed, now at 8 weeks we have yet to be able to put her down drowsy and have her fall asleep. A couple times we have let her fuss, not crying just complaining ,and she has fallen asleep. But like 95% of the time she starts crying and we have to start all over.

hadeelb · November 2014

mana8503 said:
I don't mean to, but she usually wakes up going from glider to pnp. I swaddle her legs, put in her paci, turn on the sound machine and go do my bathroom stuff (brush teeth, wash face , etc). She's usually asleep when I check on her. If she's fussy I pick her up and rock her in my arms until she's back asleep. We have night lights in our night stand lights so it's darkish.

I can put him down with the paci but as soon as it falls out he cries, and that's usually within 5 mins of putting him down!

kaileemariep · November 2014

My girl has to be asleep before being put down. She is 9 weeks Thursday. We do have a routine though and I'm pretty consistent with how our days go. Babies and children thrive with routine and consistency. So I try to put her asleep the same ways each day and night.

mana8503 · November 2014

hadeelb said:

mana8503 said:
I don't mean to, but she usually wakes up going from glider to pnp. I swaddle her legs, put in her paci, turn on the sound machine and go do my bathroom stuff (brush teeth, wash face , etc). She's usually asleep when I check on her. If she's fussy I pick her up and rock her in my arms until she's back asleep. We have night lights in our night stand lights so it's darkish.

I can put him down with the paci but as soon as it falls out he cries, and that's usually within 5 mins of putting him down!

E found her hand and I hear her going to town on that until I find her paci. But usually she's so tired she doesn't need it. She stares off until she's asleep. Mind you this is after her 20 min scream fest to fight sleep. She admits defeat and goes with it.

MLE_C2B · November 2014

I do but only when timing and opportunity allow, like we're in training. So when he's sleepy I set him down or when super cranky he gets swaddled and down with a pacifier. I keep thinking he's too young still for sleep training yet have no clue when is old enough??? We're 7 wks.

favretk · November 2014

My LO is 8 weeks. I've slowly been trying to do this and just in the past few days/week it's been pretty successful. I swaddle, rock her til her eyes get heavy then put her down. She'll wiggle around a little with her eyes open but falls asleep pretty quickly. She's also just now starting to like the pacifier so that helps. On the downside she only sleeps 2-3.5 hrs at a time

kearls227 · November 2014

We started doing this accidentally because he would occasionally wake up when transitioning from rocker to crib. I realized my DH would lay him down awake and he would fall asleep so I started doing it immediately! When we first started this he would spit out his paci and we would have numerous trips back to the nursery to give it back but now many nights he doesn't fuss when he loses the paci or I might have to go in once to give it back or soothe. Once in a while if cranky I will have to soothe a few times, I usually rub his belly while whispering "mommy loves you" and "go to sleep" gently while shushing him and it works well.

I'm so glad we started doing this early on - LO is 9 weeks now and we've been doing this probably 4-5 weeks now.

hadeelb · November 2014

mana8503 said:

hadeelb said:

mana8503 said:
I don't mean to, but she usually wakes up going from glider to pnp. I swaddle her legs, put in her paci, turn on the sound machine and go do my bathroom stuff (brush teeth, wash face , etc). She's usually asleep when I check on her. If she's fussy I pick her up and rock her in my arms until she's back asleep. We have night lights in our night stand lights so it's darkish.

I can put him down with the paci but as soon as it falls out he cries, and that's usually within 5 mins of putting him down!
E found her hand and I hear her going to town on that until I find her paci. But usually she's so tired she doesn't need it. She stares off until she's asleep. Mind you this is after her 20 min scream fest to fight sleep. She admits defeat and goes with it.

I want him to self sooth with his hands but we are still swaddling. I'm sure I'll have a frustrating post on a few weeks when we start to transition out of the swaddle

str13 · November 2014

mana8503 said:
I don't mean to, but she usually wakes up going from glider to pnp. I swaddle her legs, put in her paci, turn on the sound machine and go do my bathroom stuff (brush teeth, wash face , etc). She's usually asleep when I check on her. If she's fussy I pick her up and rock her in my arms until she's back asleep. We have night lights in our night stand lights so it's darkish.

Basically this. I was having a really hard time. And I was jumping up each time she made a peep, I was losing it. Her pedi told me to give her a little bit more time to before I get up. A lot of the time she does soothe down. This has stopped many of our long nights sleeping on the sofa!!!

As far as bedtime, I'm a nurse and I get home at crazy times, so bedtime has always been a little bit of a crap shoot. I get LO down after we eat and get DD1 down.

HorseLover11 · November 2014

We've put her down awake 95% of the time since birth but it gets harder and harder later in the day as fussiness starts to set in. I rock her in her room as dark as it can be with the sound machine on until she's content and put her down.

Ahlome08 · November 2014

Depends on the day. Some days DS will be so tired he will just fall asleep in his bassinet. Other days I have to swaddle, feed, rock him to sleep, etc. if he is fussy in bed, I let him fuss, but I don't let him full on cry. He is only 8 weeks old and dr said not to let him CIO until around 6 months, as they don't have developed sleep cycles until around then.

Megan09140 · November 2014

We have been putting LO in his own room since he was 2 weeks old he would wake up when putting him down so he always falls asleep on his own. It helped us to put one of those wedge things under his matresspad cuz my LO likes to be a little elivated, he falls asleep faster and sleeps longer. Also he has a sound machine that helps him fall asleep and if he doesn't fall asleep then and he starts crying and he is feed and changed we let him cry for just a little bit but within 3 minutes he is asleep. He cries cuz it helps him to pass his gas (he is super gassy) and then he stops after he toots haha

nilvero · November 2014

We started doing this at the end of our bedtime routine. I rock him a little and as soon as I see the first sleep cue down he goes. Some nights he falls asleep quickly, others he lays there for a but, but never really fussy.

Lobsterface22 · November 2014

My DS is also 10 weeks. We put him down awake, but it took us a little while to get there. It started with me having to swaddle him, turn on white noise, rock for a while with paci, then lay him in crib and hold paci in his mouth for anywhere from 30 to 45 mins til he'd fall asleep. It only took a few days for that to drop down to 15 mins. Now, 4 weeks later, as long as something else isn't keeping him awake (hunger, poopy diaper, etc), he'll go down with swaddle, white noise, 2-3 mins of rocking, then lay him in crib drowsy but awake and leave the room. He always wakesup a little between rocking and laying him down. We realized that us being in the room to soothe was too exciting for him and kept him awake. We're also really lucky that he'll spit the paci out or flat out refuse it when he's ready to fall asleep. So it took hard work, but we went from a baby who wouldn't sleep anywhere but in our arms unless laid down dead asleep, to a baby who falls asleep on his own after a less than 5-min routine. The swaddle-paci-rocking combo is definitely the trick for us - he'll go from wide awake to fighting to keep eyes open in minutes

hadeelb · November 2014

nilvero said:
We started doing this at the end of our bedtime routine. I rock him a little and as soon as I see the first sleep cue down he goes. Some nights he falls asleep quickly, others he lays there for a but, but never really fussy.

Do you do that for naps too or just at night?

nilvero · November 2014

For naps, as soon as I see a sleep cue, he gets swaddled and put in the rock and play or swing. He gets his paci and he usually conks out afterwards.

Mrs. Pleimann · November 2014

My LO is just over 7wks & we started doing it by accident. My in laws came to town & completely overwhelmed her. She was totally overstimulated and just wanted a break from being held so I took her to her crib and let her relax. I stayed in the room & realized she was out! Had to do it a few other times during their visit. Granted, now I wait for signs of sleepiness but it seems like something she's okay with.

jht14 · November 2014

We normally can't put her down awake. If she wakes up when being put down then usually she will fall asleep anyway but other times we have to pick her back up.

ashaw512 · November 2014

I always put DS down when he's awake. Bath time at 7, lotion and pjs, nurse one more time, and bedtime at 8:30. He's usually pretty tired so most of the time he goes right to sleep, he might wiggle around bc he's lost his paci or has gas. I usually wait for a few minutes to see if he's going to get mad or soothe himself. If he gets mad I give him his paci and pat his back until he goes to sleep.

lmimms87 · November 2014

We haven't been successful yet with putting LO down drowsy and having her fall asleep, but we keep trying. She's just found her hands and loves sucking on her fingers, so maybe soon?!

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