How to get baby in cot?

NoAngel

Hi OP. My little one is 8 months old now. We started with a bedtime routine at a couple of months and put her down at night awake. We left her and went back as often as it took for her to sleep, Leaving her to cry for around 30 seconds. Nowadays she just goes straight down, no,crying or going back and forth.

I initially let her nap on me for ages and then decided it was ridiculous so started doing the same thing for nap times. It took a few weeks of trying but I eventually got there. I can't leave her crying and tend to just rub her tummy or stroke her face and this calms her. I try to never get her back up once I've put her down (unless she needs nappy changing or I can see she's not really tired).

Hope this helps x

youwhat

Maybe I am not the best person to give advice as struggled a lot with daytime naps in cot although think have cracked it now (8 months on haha). Aim I was working towards was to be able to lay baby down awake, for her to settle herself.
Found bed time easier as baby more willing to settle. Basically kept everything very dark and quiet for final feed and lay baby down awake. Would leave to grizzle for a bit. Half the time she would go to sleep on her own, but if crying escalated I would pick up and ssh rock etc until she fell asleep on me, then would lay down very gingerly! Over time she got better and better and going to sleep on her own and the times I had to go back to her got less and less (probably started this system around same age as your baby is now).
For day time naps I spent months cuddling to sleep but eventually progressed to laying in cot awake, whilst ssshing and patting (could your 3 year old help with the ssshing?!). Eventually reduced the ssshing and patting so was giving less and less help to get to sleep. Now I can lay her down awake for all sleeps and she goes to sleep on her own quite happily.
Back in the days when I use to lay her down asleep, if she woke up I used to put my hands on her face and ssshh and sometimes this would be enough to send back off to sleep. Was very reliant on the ssshing!
Good luck. Can't help with the 3 year old issue sorry!

youwhat

Noangel sounds similar to me, but has explained much more succinctly!

NoAngel

youwhat wrote: »

Noangel sounds similar to me, but has explained much more succinctly!

I was thinking exactly the same about you! Sounds like we had very similar experiences. Getting LO to nap in the cot has significantly improved my days! (Time for a cuppa and to stick a load in the washer) Takes perseverance but you'll get there x

notanewuser

Are you always at home for naps?

DD had all of her naps in her pram (carry cot). Friends that insisted their babies sleep in their cots all the time soon found they had to go home every nap time as their babies couldn't sleep anywhere else.

Personally I think any point where you describe their age in weeks is too early to be worrying about routines and strict bedtimes etc.

NoAngel

notanewuser wrote: »

Are you always at home for naps?

DD had all of her naps in her pram (carry cot). Friends that insisted their babies sleep in their cots all the time soon found they had to go home every nap time as their babies couldn't sleep anywhere else.

Personally I think any point where you describe their age in weeks is too early to be worrying about routines and strict bedtimes etc.

This is a good point as my LO will nap in her car seat, pushchair or in my arms if we are out (even so that we could go out on an evening on holiday and she'd sleep either in my arms or in her pushchair whilst we ate). It feels much more flexible than my friends who have to rush back for the cot and sometimes at home we cuddle on the sofa for nap time.

I still think that even at this early age getting into good habits is useful. I'm not one for strict routine as I can't live my own life to a clock like that, but being able to put LO down awake rather than rocking her to sleep was very useful but its good to let baby guide you.

sedment

For settling my lo's at night or naps, I used to sleep with a extra large nightie or sleep shirt for a night, then use it as a cot sheet (bonkers i know). The magic with it is it smells like me, so settled my little one. Worked for us anyway. For what its worth, mine were put down awake for a nap in the cot everytime. And now they can sleep anywhere deeply from 8 till 8 every night. The problem is getting them up

SmlSave

Some great advice, thanks everyone.

I'm more than happy to be 'stuck' home for naps once they are at regular times I really miss napping with DS!