Sleeping by himself

[knopk@]

I am not even dreaming about sleeping through the night, just want him in his own cot but he just cant fall asleep by himself.

We tried tiring him out, letting him cry, pick up/put down, husband gave him top up and put him in the cot.

What am I doing wrong? I want him to be able to fall asleep by himself and not on the boob in a bed with me

 

[clairebear22]

I think it must be so much harder for them to self settle when they're breastfed because of the closeness of it. Jack wouldn't breast feed and I was gutted (still am 5 months later) but he loves to snuggle into me & be rocked off to sleep. We are just about to start self settling with him for all of his naps because it's getting harder to lay him down without waking him when we rock him. Jack has a dummy & a muzzy (muslin) for comfort so he self settles beautifully at night but he's pretty rubbish during the day. We know we have to be cruel to be kind and unless he gets distressed we just need to keep popping his dummy back in until he's asleep. Does your LO have anything other than you for comfort? Or maybe dim lighting and lullabys? Other than that just perservere and hope he learns to do it. Sorry that waffle wasn't more help! lol x

 

[knopk@]

I wish he took a dummy, we have4 different types inthe house and he spits them all out hence he only cofort sucks on me. We dim the lights, put on music/make it quiet, nothing seems to be working. After solid 30 mins of crying today I gave up and picked him up because I needed some sleep, doh

He also doesnt suck on his hand, I tried giving it to him

 

[Maria1977]

My son is 11 months old tomorrow and still can rarely self-settle!! Mostly I don't mind, but it can be exhausting. We can't even move him once he's asleep as transference wakes him, and if we do manage it and he wakes in his cot he gets really freaked out that he's not where he fell asleep and gets so upset he ends up back in with us anyways!

Sorry, I know I've been no help at all, but just wanted you to know that you're not alone!

I said to OH over the weekend I will look back in a couple of years though and miss this, coz it won't last forever. I'll be crying one day 'where's my baby that loved his cuddles' lol

I think the only thing there is to do is to let them cry unfortunately. That's the only answer we've ever come across. Our LO is so stubborn though it would probalby take weeks of sleepless nights before he got used to self-settlnig and we just can't bring ourselves to let him cry it out!

 

[clairebear22]

How about a tshirt that you've worn that smells of you and your milk? Let him snuggle into it and see what he does? Jack snuggles into his muzzy to go to sleep, i'll take a pic tonight and post it tomorrow x

 

[ft90]

Maria I think we're going to have that with our LO, he's getting so hard to put down at night and wakes up crying...

We've tried to let him cry it out, especially in the mornings because he's extra naughty when it starts getting light, he literally turns into a monster. We feed him at about 6 and change him, then he won't go back to sleep! He has about 6/7oz of milk and has a clean nappy and lots of burps so there's nothing wrong with him, but the other day he cried non stop for 2 hours! Eventually we gave up and let him in bed and he was fine grrrr!

A few times he's self settled, like tonight, with his dummy, that's the only thing we can use sometimes. He's really hit and miss!

Knopk@ - sorry i'm not more help, but you're definitely not alone! xx

 

[Sarah13]

I think they are too young to self sooth just now and don't understand so just end up distressed. I'd like Kynon to go down by himself soon too but I'm sure it's a while away yet. I've been cuddling a soft toy in bed for the last week to smell of me and breast milk I've started giving it to him as a comfort so hopefully it will eventually work. I stroke his face with the toy and have it next to us during the night time feeds as well. Kynon spits dummies out too, suppose they are nothing like a nipple!