How do you put your baby to sleep?

DD is 9 weeks old and the only way to get her to sleep is by rocking or nursing her. Does anyone do anything differently or is this normal and what I should expect since she's so little? At what age should I try something different? She also easily sleeps on us but I need to make sure she is 100% asleep before putting her down. If not, she will wake right back up, eyes completely open and starting over to get her to sleep.

Also, I find she can be very fussy/cranky when awake. She'll cry until we pick her up and she loves to be walked so she can look around. Honestly, this is exhausting. I don't want to create bad habits. I go back to work in a month and my mom will be watching her and she doesn't have the energy or strength to hold and walk her around all day. Any advice?

TIA!!

How do you put your baby to sleep?

I think it depends on the baby. At that age, DD was able to put herself to sleep. We used the eat, play, sleep routine so I would nurse her as soon as she woke, we'd play for a bit on the play mat or in the bouncer, etc, and then as soon as she made the tiniest fussy noise I would put her in the crib with a musical toy and she would nod off within a few minutes. Sometimes she cried a little which I was fine with as long as she didn't get too worked up. Thankfully was always a calm baby so she rarely but up much of a fight.

As far as being cranky during the day, how long does she stay awake for? At that age, DD could only stay awake for an hour before going down for another nap. She would nap around 4 times a day for about an hour each. That way she didn't get overtired and was pretty happy although she did get fussy in the evenings for the first few months. She liked the play mat, musical toys, the bouncer if I entertained her with toys and books, running errands, sitting in the boppy while I played music and acted like a goofball for her. I would also invest in a good carrier that you and your mom can use.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

IMO it is normal, but I nursed DD to sleep until she was over a year old. It worked for us and I enjoyed that time at night snuggling with her.

I think that as long as it seems to be working and it is ok with you (meaning you're not looking to change things bc you're unhappy), I'd stick with it.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

My dd is 12 weeks and I usually nurse her to sleep at night. During the day I try to put her down awake and rub her back and shush her until she gets drowsy. I am going back to work next month, so I have made a conscious effort to put her down more during the day so that it will be easier for my babysitters. I do a rotation of her bouncy seat, swing, playmat, and then holding her. She loves the ergo, so I'll put her in that too. Maybe start a little routine with that so you can tell your mom she can do that too. I know my mom and mil liked when I had a little routine going that they could follow.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

Thanks for the replies!!

I just feel like I am all over the place and since I am a FTM, I worry if she's ok, normal behavior, etc. She's a good sleeper at night but I just want to ensure that we're not creating bad habits.

It really varies how long she is awake during the day but it can definitely be for more than one hour at a time. Same goes for sleeping. If she's fussy and rubbing her eyes, the telltale sign, then I lull her to sleep and put her down (and hope she stays asleep!).

I'm ok with nursing her at night. It's the one thing we've sort of made a routine. She eats, falls asleep, and I can put her down for the night.

We're moving into our new home soon so I'm hoping that when her nursery is set up and we have more room, it will be easier and we'll have even more routine to come.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

9 weeks is really little. I think at that age you do whatever you need to do in order to get baby to sleep. I don't think habits start forming until 4-5 months. Do you try swaddling with loud white noise? Babies really love both of these.

As far as wanting to look around, my DD and DS both had really good head control by 3 months and so I was able to put them in the exersaucer. Do you also use a playmat with little toys to dangle above her? That will occupy her attention for a little while. I agree with pp who said to also invest in a good carrier. Don't worry in a few weeks, your DD will start to be able to do more than just lay around so it will become easier to keep her entertained.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

Message edited 10/7/2013 4:36:59 PM.

How do you put your baby to sleep?

At 9 weeks I would have done anything that worked to get my DS to sleep.

I would not worry about it at this age. Do whatever works.

How do you put your baby to sleep?

shes almost 8mos and she falls asleep on me every night. Its fine with me because its the only time we have during the week.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

98% of the time I put both of my kids to bed, in ther crib, awake
I let them fuss, or cry a bit, but never scream bloody murder
(I'll admit the other 2% of the time I selfishly didn't want to put them down so I held them and rocked them!!)

I don't know, people thought I was crazy, but IMO, babies are people - and people don't ALWAYS have to be (or want to be) entertained. If the baby is awake and perfectly fine, there's no need to pick them up and rock them - just let them be KWIM?
I would leave them in the crib or the swing or on the floor for a while to enterain themselves, or just look around/hang out - just b/c their eyes are open doesn't mean you have to be on top of them (I'm not saying YOU do this...........just in general)

My advice is if the baby is calm, and happy and relaxed, try to put him to down while still awake ........see how it works out for you

ETA at 9 weeks you can try to start getting her into more of a nap 'schedule' ......maybe interact and play w/ her and tire her out so to speak, and then put her down. She may begin to sleep for longer stretches of time, and then you'll get to know her cranky b/c she's tired vs. cranky b/c she's hungry vs.just plain cranky for the hell of it moods .........9 weeks is early! Give yourself a break!

Message edited 10/7/2013 3:56:56 PM.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

I nurse my 3mo twins to sleep... I did the same with my older DS. Once we weaned at 13mo, he had no problem falling asleep in his own. I would just do whatever works! I personally love the peaceful quiet time with my boys at bedtime.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

How do you put your baby to sleep?

We lay DD down in her crib awake and let her put herself to sleep. We've done this since she was 7 weeks old.

ETA this is what the pediatrician told us to do, so we just listened lol. Luckily it worked out

Message edited 10/7/2013 9:14:28 PM.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?

I have read three books on sleep in babies and sleep schedules, etc.

Out of the three, I found the most effective one was: Twelve Hours' Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old.

If you read that you will clearly see, as I definitely did, what you are doing that is detrimental, what you are doing great, what you are doing that will create bad habits, and what is perfectly normal for the age of the child. I found this to be SO helpful!! Because I would wonder, is this right, normal, am I helping?? All of that stuff. And, also, certain patterns are normal at a young age but then they are not good when they are older. This book really outlines in a VERY simple way, step-by-step, what to do and WHEN. When is key - because, in the early stages "all bets are off" and you just need to soothe, etc. It made me feel better to read this in the book because I realized that what I was doing was right and not counter-productive.

So far, the book has been great, Julian is a month old and goes down at 8:45-9pm each night and wakes at 3am for a feed/change and then wakes up again at 8-8:30am. I found that I was able to get these results by following the book's advice. More than the other two books I read also - this was most effective.

I'm sure everyone might have slightly different outcomes but for me, it was wonderful. I like it too because it breaks it down by AGE and tells you what you should be doing WHEN. Great!

The next step for us is to transition him away from that one 3am feeding and go to no waking at night and just feeding during the day... in a few weeks... and she walks us through how to do that like she walked us through how to do what we did up until this point.

Hope that helps you and best of luck - I know how hard it can be when you just aren't sure if what you are doing is helping or hurting!

How do you put your baby to sleep?

Dd is 13mos old. I nurse her to sleep and usually before naps too. However at daycare of when she's with my mother they have no prob laying her down and giving her her lovey and saying night-night and she's plays with her lovely and usually goes right out.

Re: How do you put your baby to sleep?