How do you get your 6-12 mo old baby to sleep?

[handsandfeet]

My 10 mo old no longer will nurse to sleep, and he really fights it now. How do you get your LO to sleep?

[lilabet]

I lie him in his crib, awake, and he chats to himself for a bit then falls asleep. Same for both naps and night time.

ETA sometimes in the middle of the night if he wakes (teething or something) I pat and shhhhhhh.

[justKate]

Originally Posted by lilabet

I lie him in his crib, awake, and he chats to himself for a bit then falls asleep. Same for both naps and night time.

ETA sometimes in the middle of the night if he wakes (teething or something) I pat and shhhhhhh.

OMG I want to trade babies. My brother and SIL are in Manchester, can we meet there?!

DD will be 1 in 1 week and must be held down, tightly, and nursed. Then turned on her side with me holding her arms down so that she can't smack herself awake. She protests a little then settles down to sleep. If I move her too quickly we have to start the process over. Once she's really out, I move her to her crib until I go to sleep. She wakes every 1.5 hours for a repeat; except once I'm in bed I let her stay in bed with me.

[lilabet]

Ha ha ok! He's a monster in other ways, if it makes you feel better!

I worked on it since he was born as I am awful awful awful with no sleep and knew I needed something sustainable and long term. So in the first few weeks, he would fall asleep while breastfeeding. I started laying him down on a cushion on my lap while he was sleepy, where he would fall asleep. Gradually the cushion got to be beside me, then in his moses basket next to me, then just down in his moses basket, and so on. At various points he's been swaddled, it's depended on how how it was in summer, etc. It's still his ultimate comfort thing even now. Oh and he did go through that wack himself in the face phase too which he was then swaddled for!

They still wrap him at nursery as I guess the other distractions means he needs something to tell him it's his down time. When he's at home though he's not often swaddled anymore, maybe once in every few weeks?

You have to work at it, and have a plan. While nursing, start shhhing as your baby falls asleep. Create a new association, and just do it gradually. If dogs can be trained to give a pavlovian response, I'm sure kids can too being as how they're more intelligent etc! Go for it. And good luck.

[Mal85]

Bedtime and naptime are two very different things in our house.

Bedtime, I nurse her until she's drowsy. Then she'll unlatch and lay on my chest until she falls asleep. Sometimes I do have to hold her down to get her to settle and it can be difficult, but not always. If we're up past her bedtime for whatever reason, she'll usually nurse to sleep. Then, I swaddle her and lay her in her crib.

Naptime, she nurses a little while before going to sleep. This will usually give her a short spurt of energy for some reason. Then, she falls asleep in her bouncy seat. Will not let me hold her or soothe her in any way except for bouncing. I used to be able to get her out of the seat, swaddle her, and lay her down in the crib. But anymore, she will only nap in her seat. We really have to break this, she's almost a year old and looking ridiculous in that seat.

I have such different plans for our next baby. I do not intend to bedshare nearly as long and will start transitioning #2 to his/her own bed within the first few months. We're really struggling with the transition to the crib right now.

[JMJ]

Just because your baby won't nurse down right now doesn't mean he never will again. My DD who is just a few days younger than your son won't nurse down in bed for naps right now, either. She pretty much want's to be worn until she falls asleep. She's also moving from 2 naps a day to 1 most days with a random 3 nap day every once in a while. I mostly just let her nap when she wants instead of trying to put her down. If she's fussy, I nurse her or wear her or nurse her while wearing her, and if she wants, she'll fall asleep.

Thankfully, nights are a bit different. We all go to bed and turn out the lights, and she'll spend anywhere from a minute to an hour playing in bed before nursing to sleep. Every once in a while, she'll get so full on milk that she just cuddles to sleep.

Overall, I feel like my attitude has moved from trying to get her to sleep to putting her in a position that she can sleep if she needs and not worrying so much about the outcome. She'll sleep when she's tired, and I don't want to fight her over it. Then again, she's one of those babies that is really good at self-regulating.

[Shy0717]

DS is 7 months and 98% of the time I nurse him lying in bed and he falls asleep. I play the same lullaby cd at naptime and bedtime so he associates it with rest time. The other 2% I may nurse him then have to walk him or rock him in a dark room.

[AllyRae]

DD is 12 months old and has always just nursed to sleep. I can't get her to sleep any other way. :

[red and lulu]

i said nurse (that goes for naps and nighttime), but when dp is around he just walks around, bounces a bit and she's out. that does not work for me. ever.

(okay i lie, maybe once every two weeks she'll just pass out on my shoulder. but it is the exception, not the rule. the boobs rule )

[YayJennie]

My 10 month old just falls asleep when he's tired, so long as I'm holding him. He's on a pretty regular nap schedule, so as soon as it's about nap time and he starts showing sleepy signs, I pick him up, nurse him, give him his soothie, and then he's out like a light. He will very occasionally nurse to sleep, and he HAS to have a soothie to fall asleep, but besides that, as long as I'm holding him he falls right asleep.

[Abraisme]

I usually swaddle her, then nurse her and then stand with her for a moment until she's sleeping (she doesn't usually fall all the way to sleep while nursing). She sleeps the best swaddled in a dark room (day or night). If there's any stimulation she will fight sleeping at all costs.

[j_p_i]

I chose nurse to sleep before I read your post. There as a short time when DD was on a nursing strike, and during that time all that worked was to be walked/bounced and sung to sleep.

[hakeber]

With ds, at night, we read a story (usually goodnight moon or the going to bed book) while nursing, and then I sang Hush Little Baby as we rocked over to the crib in my arms or DHs, and then I sang Tender Shepard as we patted his back, then we turned on the white noise machine (a hairdryer set on hi and cool ), and slipped out...he slept like that until he was about 14 months, then we cut out the white noise. He still gets stories and a few songs and I still pat his back when he needs it...and he's almost five.

For naps then, I just let him tire himself out or let him fall asleep in the carrier and then put him in his crib to sleep.

[Kelly1101]

I usually nurse until she's sleepy, then rock down. Sometimes if she's angry and won't nurse, she'll still let me rock her down to sleep.

[birthangeldoula]

I also lay her in her crib awake and she'll sing herself to sleep with her lovey.
She's always been pretty good about getting herself to sleep.. it's staying asleep we have trouble with lately! When she wakes in the middle of the night and doesn't go back to sleep we'll rock her.

[Madalyn]

I usually try nursing first and if that doesn't work I wear him in the moby rocking/bouncing around.

[Chamomile Girl]

Well I nurse him to sleep, and it has to be in the side-lying position. But the latest thing is that he will not stay asleep unless someone is there beside him. Last night was the perfect example...not only did he need someone by him to stay asleep it had to be me. I sat with him for two and a half hours, and when I finally got up to pee he freaked out.

I'm having trouble with this phase.

[AustinMom]

Anytime I wanted baby to sleep, I'd wrap him in the baby wrap and vacuum, it worked every time!

[BetsyS]

My first always nursed to sleep.

My second nursed before naps, but then, I'd lay him down drowsy in his crib (swaddled), and he'd fall asleep. He had a stuffed animal that played a lullaby, I'd turn that on, and before it ended, he was asleep.

I can take no credit, though. He was like this from birth (he's 18 months old and still is). He would always push away when nursing before he fell asleep. Just never liked nursing all the way to sleep.

[eli's mama]

I said nurse, but lately she's been letting me "walk" her to sleep. Sometimes i hold her while i walk (slowly) on the treadmill and sometimes just up and down the hall. She falls asleep really quickly that way, it's so weird. I discovered it while doing wii fit while holding her. Gosh, i sound like the least safe parent around.