Do the infants (less than a year) sleep automatically as in, you put them down on bed when they are tired and they go to sleep by themselves? Or do you have to make them sleep with lullabies, holding in arms, rocking them, humming, white noise, on your belly, etc etc until they finally fall asleep?
My 7mo son slept all by himself only twice in his lifetime. I wonder if everyone has to make their babies sleep like we do or they sleep by themselves.
Our 7mo old will sleep with a bottle of milk in the cot with her propped up by a blanket, which is our night time routine. Or with a blanket on her cheek. Or she’ll fall asleep in my arms while watching TV, but will wake up immediately and dance a jig if I try to put her in the cot. She also falls asleep in the baby carrier after 10mims if walking around, after which I can put her in the cot most times.
She’s fallen asleep while sat by herself about 4 times.
I heard white noise can mess with their development—it’s important to be able to sleep with random background noises like a door opening or a pencil dropping, so we never used it much.
When my wife went back to work and I took over taking care of our 2 month old, I decided to do the whole “cry to sleep” thing. I put her down when she was close to sleep but not there yet, and basically let her cry. If in ~10 minutes she wasn’t asleep I’d go pick her up and try again.
Full on crying fits were rare. She usually squawked and did some light cries. Within 2 or 3 days not only was putting her to sleep way easier but she started sleeping a full 11 or 12 hours through the night.
We still use a white noise machine, dark room, and a sleep sack (sometimes a weighted one). I think I’m going to start cracking the shades to her window during naps so she is better at napping in homes without a dark room.
All that said, there’s a reason I had to do that and not my wife. I could tell she was itching to go in at her distress, to the point where I would take the video monitor away from her. From what I read we also had better luck with it than most in that usually it takes a good week or so for it to work.
TLDR: Stop being such a millennial and let the baby cry ;)
Thanks for the tip. I have a hard time letting him cry. That's why I became very good at making him asleep. Wife gives up early and passes him to me. I use white noise as final resort which almost always works.
Right now, after your comment, I didn't struggle too much and after a little tapping went for white noise and he is now asleep. I will lower the volume and turn it off in a while. It should slowly develop into new habit.
My 7mo son slept all by himself only twice in his lifetime. I wonder if everyone has to make their babies sleep like we do or they sleep by themselves.