What is your "go-to" technique for getting your wakey baby to sleep?

[newmamalizzy]

My 4 month old DD generally goes to sleep easily, but every now and again she stubbornly remains wide-eyed and wriggly even though I know she's exhausted. This evening while swaying my poor overstimulated baby to Sweet Baby James, I worried that her wakefulness might outlast the Best of James Taylor, and THEN what would I do?? Luckily, James worked his magic, and DD is sleeping contentedly (for the moment). It made me curious, though: When nothing else works, what is the one thing you can rely on to get your baby to sleep?

[mormontreehugger]

A ten minute car ride will usually put DS out like a light when he gets hyperactive like that when he's exhausted. I've also done nursing (of course) and rocking and singing in a dark room. I've done walks with the stroller a few times, but I'm usually too tired myself to do that.
So yeah. The car is magical.

[meemee]

hah!!!! i had a super non sleeper. so there was no ONE definite thing. these are what helped dd.

-she HATED the car seat, so walk in the stroller.
-talking on the phone. i would ignore her and talk on the phone. she hated me singing to her which later i found because it meant bed time.
-moving to another part of the house. taking her around the hosue and letting her see the pantry again (she loved seeing it). sometimes she couldnt fall asleep if she hadnt had enough stimulation.

at that age too i realised dd had her own bedtime. not me telling her what her bedtime was. nightowl. so i learnt she wasnt ready to go to bed yet as it wasnt night time yet. i let her go to bed when she was tired and she slept much better.

[katelove]

My LO isn't as old as yours yet but, so far the most consistently successful thing is putting her in a wrap and doing housework. It's even more likely to work than just walking with her in the wrap. Not sure why. Maybe the variation in movement?

[blimbrick]

My guy almost always nursed to sleep at that point. And we didn't really have a set routine at that age (now he's 10 mos.) so he pretty much went to bed when I did, whenever he was ready to go to sleep. He just never stayed asleep, at all it seemed Car rides also worked great, I've also heard of people putting baby in a carrier and swinging, or rather having dad swing, the baby to sleep. If the car seat works for you, or rocking (I usually had to rock and nurse), maybe look into one of the car seat rockers that you can put on the floor. I also started reading to DS right out of the hospital, so at 4 months he enjoyed me reading to him. In a dimly lit, quiet room, it's almost sure to put him in the mood to sleep. Good luck.

[sammymama]

My DD was and still is (now almost a year old) a sucker for curling up her in her sling and me bouncing her on an exercise ball and singing Yellow Submarine. Don't know what it is about that song but it is trance-inducing for her!! I just keep bouncing and going through the verses and it does the trick, most naps/nights in 5-12 minutes tops. The car seat and any form of rocking/swinging has never done it for her. Very rarely if I walked endlessly with her in the Ergo so she could be latched on she would conk out, but she would never sleep very long that way. She is still a light sleeper so when she stirs I just bounce for a second more and then back off she goes. I know a lot of people think I'm crazy, but to me, the day is so much more pleasant with a well-rested baby, so I say, do what you've got to do!