How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

I have a 6 week old and we seem to be on a little bit of a schedule. I try and start to put her down at 7:30/8 and she's usually asleep by around 9. Is it normal for it to take this long? I nurse her for 30 minutes or so, rock/walk her around for 30 minutes and then ssshhh/rock her in her rock and play to get her to sleep.

Is this normal? Is there a better way?

Re: How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

My advice to you would be to start putting her down awake and not rock her. It will be hard to do and it may take a few days for her to adjust.

I have a family member that rocked her DD to sleep or would hold her until she fell asleep. The DD is almost 3 and she still has to be held in order to go to sleep.

Re: How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

Isn't 6 weeks too young to soothe themselves to sleep? Don't get me wrong, would love to start that lesson, but thought it might be too early.

Re: How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

At around 6 weeks, i put my DS in the crib awake and just rubbed his head until he fell asleep. He looooved that an d at the same time got used to falling asleep in his crib. Now I can usually just put him in the crib and leave the room and he compleely falls asleep on his own. He is 11 weeks old. He usually goes to bed around 6:30.

This is what I did with my DD too , but since she was my 1st , I loved rocking her, so I didnt do this until 6 months. It was still a pretty easy transition at 6 months.

Re: How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

My DS is 8 weeks, we put him in his crib groggy and he usually lays in there getting comfortable for about 20 minutes and then passes out.

Re: How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

You have to do what works for you and your DC.

I rocked both my DSs. My first one I rocked until he was 16 months. I LOVED this time. However it didnt take 30 minutes.

My second DS, I just stopped rocking at 9 months because after teething, 2 ear infections, the holidays and a cold, I noticed some bad sleep habits (that I recognized because DS1 did the same thing at hte same age) so I did CIO and he now puts himself to sleep.

Anyway, With DS1 I used to take him in his room after his bottle, turn on the sound machine read a story, trun off the lights sit in the glider and sing a few songs then just rock for about 5-10 minutes. And he would pass out. He STTN (9pm-6am) from about 7 weeks old.

ETA: DS1 always went to bed at 9, although he may have been a little later prior to 12 weeks. I just remember that when I went back to work he was sleeping 9pm-6am, bottle, then back to sleep until 8:30.

DS2 gets tired earlier. His bedtime now at 9months is 7:30 and he sleeps until 6 or 7am. But I used to put him to sleep around 9 pm when he was your DCs age.

Message edited 2/10/2012 9:43:08 PM.

Re: How and when do you put your newborn to sleep at night?

My dd is 12 weeks and we usually give her a bottle between 830 and 9, then it's off to bed. We always put her into bed awake. She sleeps in our room in the rock and play. If she seems a little fussy we will rock her in the rnp but most nights she doesn't need it. It usually takes her about 20 mins to fall asleep, occassionally more.