Hellobee Boards

When she was little we did all of the 5 S's. Also, for naps when I was really desperate I would put her in her carseat and rock her back & forth with my foot. These days she is a lot easier to get down at night. We can just put her in her sleepy sack, lay her in bed, give her a binky, and close the door. She falls asleep on her own in a few minutes. Naps are still a lot harder. I usually just sit in our glider with her, wrap her up in a warm blanket and rock until she falls asleep. Then I transfer her to her crib. I know that 10-month olds should be able to go down for naps on their own, but our baby still can't!

At night I've been trying not to use any "sleep props" to get J to sleep, other than his pacifier, so I'll swaddle him, put him in his crib drowsy but awake (well, more drowsy than awake), and give him a pacifier. Sometimes we need to replace the pacifier a couple times if it falls out before he falls asleep. I used to be able to put him down for bed without a pacifier and he'd fall asleep on his own, but not recently for some reason.

For naps though, I have been soothing him to sleep. I'll swaddle, put him in the crib, put in the pacifier, put one hand on his chest or tummy, and gently rock (or wiggle) him with shushing. Sometimes it takes several minutes of rocking, but usually his eyes will slowly start to get heavy and close, then I can leave the room. Eventually I'll need to nap train, but I'm just not up for it yet!

Do you ever try holding her and bouncing on a yoga ball? It was the only thing that worked for my LO for the first 3.5 months or so. And we had to bounce rather forcefully but the doc said it was fine as long as his head and neck were supported.

We were lucky that the 5 S's really worked on LO, so we'd basically pull out all the stops at once - swaddle + press close to my stomach + shush + bounce on ball + pacifier + sway him side to side + loud fan + Sleep Sheep + pat on butt or back. Sometimes he'd fall asleep and we could transfer to the crib and other times we'd do just enough to calm him down and then put him down awake.

You're not a bitch and should have no guilt (easier said than done I know), some babies are just criers. She'll never remember this anyway!

We used to rock him in a pitch black room with white noise and his head flopped back (he loved that position even though it sounds really uncomfortable!). He started to resist the rocking really early on (6-7 weeks; trying to kick his way out of our arms) and bouncing, patting, nursing, etc. didn't work so we started putting him down awake and letting him fuss for a few minutes at a time. We would rub his back and reassure him and it never took more than 10 minutes for him to fall asleep. Since then, he goes down wide awake for all sleep for anyone that puts him down so long as the timing is right, and we are super thankful for that!

@Travelgirl1: I find that when I am soothing J to sleep for his naps, it helps if I don't look him in the eyes (or even really look at his face). It's hard to do, but if I make eye contact, that energizes him and makes him want to play!

@travelgirl1: @beehive: I have to be careful when shhh-ing J to sleep, because sometimes he will make a little snorting noise or something equally cute that will make me want to laugh, and that wakes him right up again!

Recently the normal routes have been failing us so, we walk stairs. Something about the bouncing of the stairs seems to soothe her. It's great for my thighs and flat post-baby rear-end, too.