https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:27:49 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2058192 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 19:58:30 +0000 spaniellove 2058192@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lion: @MenagerieMama: We also use ocean white noise! I ended up with it because one day I discovered that the Mamaroo I was sitting next to had white noise settings and that was what I could tolerate, so when I moved him to the crib that's what I chose on the Sleep Sheep bunny. And it works like a charm - I turn on the white noise, sign "sleep", and walk away. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2058078 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:19:56 +0000 nana87 2058078@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Lo is 10 months and we still nurse or bottle feed before sleep much of the time, or rock to sleep if she pops off or isn't hungry anymore. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057928 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 16:00:29 +0000 catomd00 2057928@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 11 month old stills nurses to sleepy sometimes! A lot of time she doesn't but allowing her to do it didn't create some bad habit. If it's working for you both there's no need to stop! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057589 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:19:24 +0000 jape14 2057589@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: I think trying it for naps can't hurt. We basically did everything possible to associate that particular song with sleep! We also have a lovey that he only has during naps and bedtime, and that definitely helps. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057543 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:05:09 +0000 snowjewelz 2057543@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I like the music or lovey association and then separating it from existing ones like nursing/rocking! I'm gonna try it with DD; she is 2 mos so we are not doing any sleep training but I do need to start teaching her to fall asleep! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057514 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:46:33 +0000 Mrs. Champagne 2057514@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We always did EASY so we didn't feed before naps (we do before bed though). We did a tight swaddle and rocked him in the rock n play. We did that always (or bouncy chair for some naps). Eventually we stopped the rocking and ditched the swaddle and now he's in a crib (since 4.5 months). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057508 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:44:35 +0000 Ajsmommy 2057508@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Your LO is only 16 weeks so I'd say just go with it. I used to bf DD to sleep every night until she was about 8 months then she stopped wanting to be nursed so we changed bedtime routine and now I rock her in our glider, read her two books and then put her down in her crib with a little lullaby. I would have kept nursing her to sleep though if she hadn't quit on her own..... She goes down for both naps and bedtime while awake and puts herself to sleep. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057460 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:28:49 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2057460@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MenagerieMama: We use ocean noise too! :) It is relaxing for me too :) The ocean most definitely did NOT make LO fall asleep when we went to the beach though :) He was way to excited to eat the sand! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057445 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:22:06 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2057445@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: We started from the very beginning, so we never had to do sleep training. I think having a very sleepy newborn helped though. He always pooped during feedings, so if he would fall asleep during a feeding we would change his diaper, and that would always wake him up just enough. I would have been okay with sleep training for the purpose of teaching him to fall asleep on his own, but we were lucky that following eat play sleep was enough for us. We never had to do any sort of formal sleep training (although we also started from the beginning counting to 30 before we get him when putting him down or during naps...usually that 30 seconds is enough to tell whether he was just making noise (he was a noisy sleeper) or really needed us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057425 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:10:41 +0000 MenagerieMama 2057425@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erind425: we do the same thing but with ocean white noise (DH is a psych PhD!) and it helps her fall asleep in unfamiliar places too. I just joke that we will take her to the beach some day and she'll just fall asleep!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057400 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:56:26 +0000 Pumpkin Pie 2057400@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My LO learned to fall asleep on her own through sleep training. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057393 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:50:47 +0000 Meridian 2057393@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erind425: @twodoghouse: I like the music idea! Right now we always have white noise on, and we use lullaby music right before bedtime, but maybe will try it for naps as well? He has a stuffed dog that plays 5, 10 or 15 mins of lullaby music when you squeeze his paw. I do think that fisher price seahorse is cute though, ha! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057392 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:47:42 +0000 Meridian 2057392@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lion: When did your LO learn to sleep on his own, and was it through sleep training? LO can SOMETIMES fall asleep on his own, but it's very inconsistent! Last night we put him in the crib 90% asleep and then saw him looking around eyes wide open on the monitor. I was prepared for our usual 2 hours of bedtime crying... but when I checked the monitor 5 mins later, he was asleep!</p> <p>Also, regarding putting him down for a nap earlier, he only has about 40 - 45 mins of awake time before he gets his bottle. Our doctor told us to try and extend his awake time and add some more stimulation... argh, it's SO hard to figure out, hah! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057323 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:04:22 +0000 twodoghouse 2057323@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: That's such a hard time when the thing that worked before stops working! I remember reading sleep books in the middle of the night trying to figure out what I was doing. All I could think was "you spent nine months reading birth stories on the internet! You couldn't have picked up a sleep book once during that time???"</p> <p>Similar to @erind425: said, we use a soothe and glow seahorse (fisher price brand) now with DS. It plays music for five minutes then turns off. I'd give him the seahorse when I was nursing him and let him drift off to sleep with it on me. Then we started transitioning to the crib. He now looks at the light on the seahorse while he's awake, and when the music and light go off, he just falls asleep. So he's really conditioned to fall asleep to that song. It's been magic! DD laughs in the face of the seahorse Pavlov's dog trick though, so it obviously doesn't work for all babies! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057313 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:57:36 +0000 jape14 2057313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: We also use music as a cue (like @Mrs. Lion:). The way we did it is we started pairing a song (we picked Sweet Baby James by James Taylor - definitely doesn't have to be a lullaby) with the bedtime feeding - just singing the same song over and over while I nursed him, toward the end of the session when he was getting drowsy. Over time, he started associating the song with sleep, and we were able to shift the song back so that our routine is now: change diaper, feed, sleep sack, down in crib, give him his lovey, sing song, go to sleep. We sing it before naps, too, and also have played it in the car on long car rides to get him to fall asleep. </p> <p>The key is to pair the cue you want to associate with sleep (e.g., a song) with the existing sleep cue (i.e., feeding) and then gradually separate them. It's basically classical conditioning if you remember that from intro psych! (I have a phd in psychology so this was the way that made the most sense to me...) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057307 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:54:16 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 2057307@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: my oldest was terrified of the mobile - it made her cry! - so we got rid of it. My nana swore by a baby Einstein mobile she had for one of my cousins (it's 10yrs old) and gave it to us. It did somewhat stimulate her, but to be fair, nothingggggg puts my oldest to sleep. </p> <p>My 5 month old does like it a lot! She falls asleep quite easily with it, but under the right circumstances. She has to be full and drowsy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057292 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:45:29 +0000 psw27 2057292@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: I will add at bedtime, he is totally fine being put down awake and just dozes off and sleeps for 9-12 hours straight. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057287 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:44:33 +0000 psw27 2057287@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: He goes to daycare, so he naps there 4x a day but really short 30-40 minute naps. He just doesn't like to take long naps apparently! At home, we are usually on the go on weekends so he sleeps in his stroller or the car seat. If we are home and he needs a nap, he usually goes in the Mamaroo which calms him down and he will pass out on his own or I will nurse him and he falls asleep nursing. I totally failed at nap training... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057284 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:42:27 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2057284@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: the 30-40 minute naps can often be a result of missing the initial window for naptime...overtired babies sometimes have a harder time transitioning between sleep cycles. You could maybe try putting him down a little bit sooner. That always seemed to help us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057269 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:37:40 +0000 Meridian 2057269@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@psw27: So what do you do for naps??</p> <p>@Mrs. Jump Rope: We don't have a mobile yet... I wasn't sure if that would be stimulating or soothing!</p> <p>@twodoghouse: yea, mine is rejecting the swaddle + paci too!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057260 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:34:15 +0000 Meridian 2057260@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@psw27: I don't mind this practice for bedtime, it still works for us (knock on wood). But LO has become king of the short 30 - 40 min naps. And then it's too soon for his next bottle, but I need to put him down for another catnap and need another method. </p> <p>In the past, holding him swaddled and giving him a paci often worked, but now he's starting to struggle against me when I do that!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057255 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:32:54 +0000 twodoghouse 2057255@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yeah, I can't figure it out either. I still nurse or give them a bottle before every nap and bedtime. I just try not to put them all the way to sleep, so they can still sort of drowsy but awake with a full belly. Before we ran into all these sleep issues and I started throwing the boob at all our problems, I could actually get them to sleep with a tight swaddle, pacifier, and some rocking. They rejected that around 3 months though! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057251 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:31:50 +0000 MrsF 2057251@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For naps I swaddle him, put on the white noise and rock him in the rocking chair until he's pretty drowsy and then put him down. </p> <p>At night I nurse him and then put him down, but he always wakes up a little in the process. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057250 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:31:42 +0000 Mae 2057250@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Rock her in the glider. We didn't initially nurse or bottle feed her to sleep except for bed time though. When she was really little she would do drowsy but awake on her own. Then she stopped being able to fall asleep that way so I had to figure out SOME way to get her to sleep and rocking her in the glider worked. At first she resisted it (and we had a particularly tough time right around 4 months... that regression is a bitch) but I would just keep rocking her and shushing her and rubbing her forehead and she would eventually fall asleep. And it got much easier to do that over time. Also at some point I made a rule where if I was trying to get her to sleep for 30 min and she was not super close I would give up and we would play and try again later. It was generally much easier to get her to sleep on the second try. </p> <p>Also my LO has never been a fan of eating immediately upon wakeup. usually she is up like 30 min at least before a bottle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057246 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:30:48 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2057246@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I used music as a cue. We fed him as soon as he woke up, and then played until he started to show signs of being sleepy. Then we did the same routine right before nap time...checked his diaper, rocked for a few minutes while singing the same songs over and over (I use an ipod dock to play music and sing along) and then put him in his crib. LO is 23 months and we still turn on his music before we leave the room. It only plays 2 songs and then changes to white noise, but I think it helps him settle down right before he falls asleep.</p> <p>ETA: I only rocked/sang until he was almost asleep and settled and put him in the crib awake...unless I wanted some extra snuggles, in which case I didn't always "follow the rules". Once he had learned to go to sleep on his own, holding him longer on occasion didn't change anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057243 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:29:48 +0000 Mamasig 2057243@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The mobile with projection did sometimes work at that age! I'd also lay him in the rnp and rock it. He'd pass out after a few minutes. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057238 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:28:22 +0000 Mamasig 2057238@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>With my boys, I did the bottle to sleep thing until it stopped working - maybe around 4 months. By then, they were way more aware so they didn't always fall asleep. Though sometimes they still did. I put DS2 to bed by rocking or holding him sideways and swaying or bouncing a little. He passes out fairly quickly that way at bedtime. Stroller rides sometimes work for naps. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057236 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:27:40 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 2057236@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meridian: sometimes (but not always!) I can get her to sleep by laying her in the crib with the mobile on. Have you given that a try? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057233 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:25:01 +0000 psw27 2057233@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't.... LOs routine is to have a bottle and once we are done we burp him and put him down awake/drowsy. (He is 6 months, 4.5 adjusted) </p> <p>Why are you concerned about feeding him pre-sleep? Is this for naps or bed time? I am only speaking about bedtime, naps are not a strong suit in my house :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-put-baby-to-sleep-wo-bottle-or-feeding#post-2057223 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:21:50 +0000 Meridian 2057223@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Cuz that's the only trick I have up my sleeve! LO is 16 weeks/11 weeks adjusted. Obviously we haven't mastered drowsy-but-awake yet, so the only way we can have a chance of getting him to sleep in his crib is giving him his bottle right before nap/bed and he'll doze off at the end. We'll need to end this bad habit at some point...</p> <p>Also, we can't get him to drink when he wakes up, which is why we started feeding before sleep. He needs awake time and activity before getting hungry enough to eat :bummed: </p> <p>How do you get your LO to sleep? </p>