Well, just wanted to know how everyone’s babies fall asleep…I have not sleep trained my baby yet…practically no time as I work at home, so I do whatever it takes to put him to sleep at his nap times…At present, I carry him and walk up and down the room with the music on…Do babies sleep on their own only if we sleep train them or will they do it on their own…? Please suggest…I really need some advice on this…
My son watches half of a BST/ST. Then we brush his teeth, let him sit on the potty (we do some flash cards and read his potty book while he’s trying to go), then I put his diaper on, put him in bed, read him a story, hug and kiss him and tell him good night, then I turn out the light and he goes to sleep within a few minutes.
Nap time is similar.
Hi Questers,
I started with the sleep time routine from when my babies were about 3 months , I have seen many moms finding it hard to put their babies to sleep even when they are grown up ( 2 years +) so I thought its better to start with some bedtimeroutine so that I need not go through the sleepless nights with 2 babies(I was not ready for that coz already I was not sleeping for the first 2 - 3 months)…went through few websites and took few things which were possible for me…
*I massage them with baby lotion after 10 or 15 mins of their feed(not regularly …alternate days)
*wear them their diapers and their night dress…
*wrap them in a cotton cloth (not very tightly…ensure that they dont get out of the cloth --just to keep them warm in the Airconditioned room )
*turn on the dim lights
*read a story book with bright pictures
*teach them to do their prayers , read out the Holy Bible (few verses) .
*turn off the dim lights and on the night lamp…
*sing a melodious song to them (My daughter just loves the devotional songs which I sing)
Initially I had difficult time to bring this in practice , but I didnt lose hope …did the process continuously for 2 weeks later they started enjoying the process…
IST 8 or 8.30 pm I start the process within 20 to 30 mins they go to sleep peacefully , I dont feed them or cradle or swadle them …Infact my baby boy gives some sought of noises when the time exceeds and the routine if not started and is very uncomfortable…when I start the routine he becomes comfortable and has a charming smile in his face…
Consistency is key here…
this link may help for some ideas…
http://www.babycenter.in/baby/sleep/bedtimeroutines/
Hope this was helpful…
Regards
Preethi
Very early (about 2 or 3 weeks old), as I started to see a little bit of a pattern to his sleep routine, I gradually aimed to have the same waking times & going to sleep times. I was a bit flexible with this at first of course, but over the next few weeks, as the sleep times became more established, then I would stick to the ‘schedule’ more closely. By 8 weeks old it looked something like this: 7am wake up, 9-11am morning nap, 1pm-4pm afternoon nap, a little evening nap of about 45minutes or so, 9pm to bed. (I’m writing this from memory and he’s over a year now, so I might be off a bit). I also aimed to have him going down awake and falling asleep in the crib, so I would make sure that we did something relaxing beforehand… nursing, or walking around in the sling for a bit… but before he got too relaxed and fell asleep, I’d plop him in his crib. For certain sleep-times this was easier than others, but gradually it happened. I’d sometimes try to keep him awake a little longer, or wake him from a nap when it was ‘time’ so that we got to a very predictable schedule. I followed his cues, and if the ‘schedule’ wasn’t working for him, we changed it a little until we got to the right schedule that worked for him. I always put the babies on their tummies… Doman recommends it for learning to crawl, but before I read anything about that, I did it anyways because infants often suffer from gas in their tummy and I just find they sleep much much better on their tummies. My babies were all healthy, full-term and able to lift their heads up within days… also sleeping close at hand in those first few weeks… so I never worried about it. If he fussed a little sometimes, I would leave him for a few minutes and often he would just go back to sleep. Sometimes I just needed to pat his little bottom a bit, but I didn’t wait until he was sound asleep, because I didn’t want that to become a habit. If he was really upset and crying a lot, I would pick him up, see if he needed to burp or needed a clean diaper, settle him just enough to be relaxed, and then put him down again. By 8 weeks he was sleeping through the night from 9pm to 7am (he’s woken in the night maybe 4 or 5 times since then, usually due to illness or something). Between 8 weeks and 5 months old, I’ve let him ‘cry it out’ for as long as 10 minutes or so maybe 4 or 5 times in total. By 5 months he was a very good sleeper, and now that he is 12 months old he has his own room (since 4 or 5 months old) and the routine is snack before bed, brush the teeth, go to his room and nurse him in the rocking chair and then I put him in his bed and say goodnight and that is the last that I hear from him until the morning. I’ve done it differently with the first few children I’ve had… and they were still needing me to be able to fall asleep when they were 3+ years old… I like this way much much better, and I think the baby does too. He gets a good night’s rest, has a very consistent sleep routine, and if he’s really really tired, it seems like he’s telling me he WANTS to go into his bed and go to sleep. I’m not against the family bed or any other method, but with 5 other children, this is what works for us and I just think that whatever routine you choose, the most important thing is the consistency. When that little one know what to expect and when to expect it, then that is what they learn to be happy with. Good luck finding what works best for your own family.
To more specifically answer your particular situation, I think at 10 months old, your little one is going to protest any change you make. With other babies that I didn’t start out with a sleep routine but changed it later, (#4 & #5), I changed their routines at the ages of 14months and 16months respectively. With #4 I did this not so gradually, and with #5 I did this more gradually (different house, different reasons/situation)… in hind-sight the less gradual way worked quicker and therefore more kind for the baby I think, but it took powerful self-control to be consistent! From needing to nurse to sleep and sleeping in our room (crib next to the bed), we suddenly needed him in his own room and able to fall asleep on his own. So first I cut out the night nursing… holding him instead… that took a couple of weeks. Then to his own room… I nursed him in the family room (deciding that nursing wasn’t going to happen in the bedroom… for consistency) and then brushed his teeth, and then put him in his crib and said goodnight and left the room. The first night he screamed! I would go into his room every 5 minutes or so and lie him back down and calmly tell him it’s time to go to sleep. I’d be brief, not wanting to ‘reward’ the crying with a whole lot of comforting. The first night took about 45 minutes, the second just over 1/2 hour, the third about 15 minutes, and the next few nights only about 5 minutes. After 2 weeks of being 100% consistent, he never cried for more than about 30 seconds and sometimes not at all. After a couple more weeks he rarely cried at all anymore about going to bed. He became happier in the daytime too, I think because he was finally getting a good sleep through the whole night. Well, I’m glad we did it… It made such a differnce to our whole family, especially that I would finally have a little more time for the older kids in the evenings and they would be going to bed more on time too, and not have their bedtime story interupted if the baby woke up AGAIN int he evening. As I said, I just think that the most important thing is the consistency… having the willpower to be 100% consistent (with a little flexiblity for illness and so on of course). You have to decide what routine will work for your own family… having very regular bedtimes and naptimes, and stick to the same routine every time.
I’m not sure if you have a "routine. Based on everything we read a routine is the most important thing to have a “good sleeper”. I can see your baby is older so I’m not sure if my experience would help. Anyways, since my baby was two monthls old she starting sleeping in her own room and her own bed (crib). Everynight we bathed her, feed her and put her to bed. We never waited for her to be asleep. Sometimes she was, sometimes she wasn’t. Now we just feed her her solids before we bath her, read to her, gave her her bottle and once she is done we put her down. Sometimes it can take her up to half hour to fall to sleep, but she is just talking and then all the sudden she falls to sleep. Sometimes she wakes up and even if she cries we don’t pick her up. Usually she doesn’t cry for more than 5 -10 minutes, if she does she may be hungry, so we just feed her a couple more ounces while she still in her crib and usually that fixes it. Same thing, sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night, she usually fuzzes for a couple of minutes and is back to sleep.
Now, I did have a lot of issues with her naps. She didn’t like to nap, but she was tired, so about two months ago I started puting her down when I knew she was tired. At the beggining she would cry up to 15 minutes of so, but after a couple of days she knew it was time for her nap and now she doesn’t cry anymore. She is rested so all of us have a wonderful day.
One of my friends recommened this book: Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition by Richard Ferber I never used it, but I lend it to a friend and she loved it.
Hope this gives you some ideas… 
Our son is a couple of months younger than yours, so I don’t know if this will help you or not. We started with a bedtime routine for our son when he was 3 weeks old to help him learn when bedtime was coming. Our routine is bath, massage, bottle, then bed.
Naptime was a bit different. He fought naptimes (didn’t want to miss anything), even though he had a routine for naps as well (story, change, turn on his sleep song, turn off the lights, rock for a minute, put him in his crib drowsy, but awake to let him fall asleep on his own). I did a lot of reading on infant sleep, and we decided that what would work for us best was the advice found in The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (By Teaching You How to Ask the Right Questions) by Tracy Hogg. She gives advice about setting a routine for your child to help them know what is coming. We don’t have a set schedule for nap times, but rather follow a routine during his day. What has worked for us is that he gets a nap after so much time being awake, instead of setting a time by the clock, which has helped us get him the best naps so far (instead of 30 minute naps during the day, he now gets 1 to 2 hour naps). Right now he gets a nap in the morning after being awake for 3 hours, then a nap in the afternoon when he has been up for 3.5 hours. I think that these times will be increasing soon though. This might not work for you, as you are obviously busy with your work, but I was able to take the time to figure out what his optimal times were, as I am currently a stay at home mom. She also offers ideas on helping your child learn to fall asleep independently while still supporting them to let them know you are there for them. Again, I don’t know if you would have the time to devote to her strategies, but she gives you a bit of a step by step guide on what she has found works.
I also know of some people that have had success with The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. She offers different solutions on how to help your child learn to fall asleep by themselves, and you choose what you think will work best for you. I do warn you, her advice can take months to work.
I have read that children will eventually learn to fall asleep on their own, but it can take along time (as in months or years), so I guess it depends on how quickly you want to get it accomplished.
Hope this helps!
We dont have a routine per se, as far as timing concerned, as we travel a lot, and I have to take baby out with us when we work sometimes ( which she loves of course).
But usually when it is a time to sleep, I try to dim the lights ( if possible, it does makes it easier), nurse her, give her her little blanket or a soft toy that she cuddles, say a short prayer ( either for a nap or for the night, it is somewhat a routine and gives a little bit of stability), and then let her “fall asleep”. She would almost always close her eyes right away, but sometimes she would stir for quite a while, other times she would go to sleep almost right away. Usually if she would start crying , is just because she either did not burp or she needs to go potty again.
I tried before putting her to sleep in our bed or in my arms, but she preferred her little bed which is right next to ours, and she goes to sleep much easier if we just do our little routine of potty, nurse, lights off, toy, prayer, and then just leave her alone…
We have not been reading a story to her before sleep. Still need to figure out how to fit that in…
When she was younger, she liked having a sea sound in the room, it helped her to go to sleep faster. She still likes it, but does not really depend on it. ut I think having something like that can be a help…
Hope it helps…
"What has worked for us is that he gets a nap after so much time being awake, instead of setting a time by the clock, which has helped us get him the best naps so far "
Want to second you on that, we are doing the same thing and it really does work!
Thanks for the suggestions everyone…I will try and see which works out for me…but I know my LO is going to protest to any new method of putting to sleep…Perhaps I should have tried doing this long back, but didn’t have the heart to try to let him sleep on his own.
I do have a bedtime routine of bathing him, changing clothes, putting music…I tried reading a book to him, but he grabs the book from me and plays with it 
If I put him on the bed and pat him, he gets up to sit and start playing…Even the little sleepiness is gone…
Over the last 2 or 3 days, he is resisting to even lean on my shoulders to sleep which is his normal way of sleeping. When somebody tells him “good night,” he starts crying and does not want to come inside the bedroom to sleep. Even if he is feeling sleepy, he fights not to sleep with all his might and wants to keep playing. I guess this is just a phase and hope it passes soon…
Whatever works best for you is the best thing to do. If you don’t have a problem with what you are doing to get him to go to sleep, and this phase passes, then you could continue what you are doing. If it isn’t working for you, then you could try to decide what you would like to do.
I just wanted to add that a friend of mine rocked her LO to sleep every time until he was 1 and a half, then one day he decided he didn’t want to be rocked anymore. Now he is 2 and half and they just read him a story, tuck him in, and tell him goodnight.
…a sea sound in the room…sounds interesting,cute idea…
:sleep:
I’m a Spiritual Teacher and this method I discovered through using with my son, helped enormously!
I hope it helps you all as well!
3 Easy Steps to Get Your Child To Sleep All Night Long
Have you ever paced, rocked or been at your wits end trying to reassuringly soothe an unsettled child to sleep? Are you curious why your toddler wakes from a deep sleep and you know it’s not from pain, hunger or discomfort? Feeling powerless to help your child can be upsetting and frustrating.
I will show you an easy proven technique that improves your child’s willingness to sleep all night long as I outline how to teach your child about their Guardian Angel so they sleep all night long.
It can be distressing to hear your child cry sobs of tears at bedtime and it pulls at your heartstrings that they fight against this rest time. I know, I empathise with you; I’ve been there and I’ve found an easy proven technique that quickly reassures children also bringing parents and children closer together in a very loving bond.
All around us in literature and history, we find paintings, drawings and images of Angels that walk before us, behind us and above us, invisibly watching over and protecting us all from harm.
In the last few decades more and more stories have emerged of accident victims walking away from disaster citing they ‘felt’ guarded and we hear stories of danger being averted because someone ‘felt’ inspired to move in the opposite direction following their ‘gut’ feeling thus avoiding disaster.
Step 1. Angel books with pictures are the best way to show your child about the visual depictions of Angel’s and what they may look like. They are the easiest way for you to introduce the look of Angels. Visit your local library or search images on the web and create your own vision board that can stay in your child’s room as a visual reminder of their Guardian Angels presence. Print out pictures of all drawings and painting of Angel’s that you like and also collect words such as Love, Peace, Hope, Safe, and glue this onto cardboard to make your child a collage picture for their room.
Step.2 As you read Angel stories place emphasis through the tone of your voice becoming softer, lighter and more relaxed beginning with what is known as the ‘dripping’ effect because you’ll repeat this process night after night. Eventually your child will begin to associate the story of Angels as one of joy for both of you to share regularly until they go to sleep confidently.
Step 3. Now it’s time to introduce your child’s personal Guardian Angel. When you know your child doesn’t want the connection between both of you to end, begin to speak in the affirmative, using your imagination to suggest what your child’s very own Guardian Angel might look like. Examples are: “Does your Guardian Angel have long hair?†or “do you think your Guardian Angel can run fast?â€
As you engage and smile at their responses they will gain a sense of approval and allow themselves to continue to build with their imagination and use of creation in this self reassurance exercise.
Now through the affirming tone of your ‘matter of fact’ voice you will depart from their bedroom, re-affirming what the two of you have shared and discussed. Stay confident in the knowledge that you are beginning the first step in the ‘dripping’ effect where night after night your tone and affirmations will create and increase comfort in your child’s mind, until your child replaces your words of reminder with their own thoughts of reassurance.
You may need help creating affirmations to help your child go to sleep easily so please visit this website http://www.bedtimeandtoilettrainingsolutions.com.au/PGuardianAngels. Remember your work is to remind your toddler that when they drift off to sleep they are taken care of, safe and sound. An e-book, mp3 recording and more is available to help you in this easy process of reassuring your child.
Hi Questers,
My son wears out walking a lot inside the house. So at around 9.30 he sleeps on his own in his bed. I think wearing out makes him sleep on his own…
@ Margit Robson, your post was useful. Thanks a lot.
We tried to encourage our babies to soothe themselves even as infants - I don’t allow them to cry themselves to sleep though. Occasionally though, i have to admit that my 2 yo will still nurse till she falls asleep. :sleep: