8 mo + -- How do you put to sleep at night?

Just curious -- do you pat to sleep, rock to sleep, do they put themselves to sleep? If they put themselves to sleep, how did they get to this point?

 

At that age mine were still either napping in their swings or bouncer chairs. I would put on Monsters Inc. for a background noise, and they would glance at it as they drifted to sleep.

 

My guys eat and then play before naps. At night, they eat, take a bath, play, take a bottle and they go in awake and usually they fall asleep on their own in their cribs (sometimes with a little CIO).

 

We followed the Ferber method at 6 months (birth age). It only took a few days and then they adjusted. It is a little difficult to hear all the crying, but his method instructs you to return to their cribs at increasing time intervals so you're not exactly abandoning or ignoring them. There is another post entitled, "is it too late for us? - sleep training @ 11 mos" in this forum which also addresses this issue and you might find it helpful. The excerpt mentioned in one of the posts from the "Kidsgrowth Sleep Article" sounds like a lot of the same advice we were given. Good luck!

 

Honestly ... I put them down and walk out ... and they fall asleep. In the beginning they would cry, I would go back in, not pick them up, calm them down and leave again. Now for the past weeks (2 months or so), they hardly cry ... it's down ... bye, bye, see you later.

My ped (Weissbluth) advised me at our 2 week visit to start as early as possible (I started about a week later) since it's learned behaviour and the sooner they get it the better. Especially because with 3 kids in the house, I just don't have time for rocking and long rituals ... and it worked.

 

I read each a story in my lap. Put them in their cribs, give a kiss and say goodnight. They are usually so tired, they will just curl up sucking their thumb. I also put on some soft classical music.

 

They put themselves to sleep.

This is what we did: Ours always slept in their car seats for naps and bedtime. We started sleep training just during naps. I would pat them and hum really loud until they fell asleep. We started this around 4 1/2 months. We also used a noise machine and CD lullaby at the same time. Within a couple weeks, I felt they knew the routine and Seamus would even hum (quiet whine) along with me. AFter about 2 weeks of practicing for naps, they no longer had them sleep in their car seats at bed time and we did the same routine that we were doing for naps. Within days, I became completely exhausted from all their night wakings and that is when we did CIO. I think the fact that we taught them how to sooth themselves during naps helped when we did CIO.

The reason we only did nap time at the beginning was because they slept so good and for longer stretches in their car seat and I was not physically/mentally ready to deal with the crib for night sleeping

 

For naps, they sleep in their swings still with music on and a bottle.

For night, we have dinner, bath (if bath night), Einstein, little play, nurse and then put in crib and they put themselves to sleep.

 

I have always nursed the girls to sleep at night, we have had a night pattern from the age of abour 7 months, dinner, bath, bottle, bed.

try and get them into a pattern, it help alot.

 

A routine helps, A LOT!

Our guys go to sleep on their own. when they were little I would put them in their bassinet and pat their backs and shh them until they drifted off. Eventually I stopped shhing, then I stopped patting. Now they rub their blankies on their face and drift off on their own.

 

They started sleeping in their cribs at about 3 weeks old and they started sleeping through the night at around 6-7 weeks. We always have had a nighttime ritual. We do bottles at 6:30-7:00pm then if they are asleep or not they are put in their beds with their pacis, blanket and we turn on their mobiles. He is usually asleep and she is usually awake. She will cry sometimes just a little and sometimes we have to go back in and put her paci back in. She went through a rough time a couple of weeks ago when she would just scream - sometimes right after we laid her down and sometimes about an hour later. But we just keep consistent. If she really got wound up we would rock her to sleep in a dark quiet room then right back to the crib. Neither one has ever slept in our bed.