How long to settle?

Hey guys,

How long does it take you to settle your baby to sleep? (specifically during the day).

My DS is 10 weeks old and it generally takes me half an hour on average to settle him to sleep during the day. It takes 15 mins on a good day or 45 mins on a bad day, or if he's overtired, but on average about 30 mins. Is that normal?

I put him down generally on the first yawn which is around an hour after he got up and I put him down awake. I leave him to grizzle/cry for a few mins and then go back in every few mins and put his dummy back in and run my finger down his forehead and nose, encouraging him to shut his eyes.

He eventually gets there but it does take a while.

Just wondering if this is a normal length of time to settle a 10 week old and also if there's anything I could be doing to shorten this time?

Thanks in advance!!! :)

i wonder if he would go to sleep faster if you didnt keep disturbing with with dummies and forehead rubbing?

What's normal for one baby isn't normal for another sorry!

But Lily would often take a while to settle sometimes and I asked my PN "How many yawns should she do before I put her down?" She said not the first yawn, but when she starts getting wriggly. I also wonder if like Bizzy mentioned if he would sleep if you just left him to it...?

Dummies never worked to get Lily to sleep and it took me a few days to realise Lily needed me to go away for her to go off to sleep by herself. She usually takes about 15-20mins by herself. When I was trying to help her we would be there for 45-60mins!

Lil_Nic9 wrote: I also wonder if like Bizzy mentioned if he would sleep if you just left him to it...? Dummies never worked to get Lily to sleep and it took me a few days to realise Lily needed me to go away for her to go off to sleep by herself. She usually takes about 15-20mins by herself. When I was trying to help her we would be there for 45-60mins!

Do you mean leave him to cry and not go back in at all? I COULD do that if I knew it was only gonna be for say 10 mins but I don't know if I could handle more than that. I do try and hold off from going in as long as possible but when he starts getting really worked up I just have to go in.....

Is he crying crying or just grizzling? If she was crying I would take the time to settle her but if she was just grizzling, it meant she just wanted some quiet alone time to go off by herself. I understand the having to go in when they get worked up otherwise you never get them down iygwim!!

I agree with Bizzy about the yawning, that always means DS is getting to the overtired point. I would start looking for other tired signs if I were you, eyes glazing over, jerky movements, DS pulls his ears (don't know if that is universal though). Also rubbing eyes is another "overtired" sign for DS.

Can't help with the actual settling part though as I feed DS to sleep 99% of the time.

Yup pulling ears is a sign as is frowning, clenching fists and blank stares according to my PN.

HuntersMama wrote: When do you feed him e.g straight after he wakes up? When DS was that age he was awake for about an hour including feeding time. I would watch him like a hawk and put him to bed as soon as I saw his tired signs. If I got it right he would grizzle for a few minutes then sleep. But if I was too early or late he was not happy!

Yep I follow the eat/play/sleep routine, so I feed him as soon as he wakes.

MamaT wrote: Speck8 wrote: I watch his tired signs pretty carefully and he actually often first yawns after he's only been up for 25 minutes!!!!! But I figure that's a 'I'm still waking up yawn'??? I could try putting him down earlier but feel bad if he's only up for 30 - 40 minutes???   DS was often only up for 40mins at a time at that age, sometimes less if he hadn't had a decent sleep before hand so it could well be that he's ready to go back down.

yep i would agree with that.

Ild agree with it too. DD would never be up for long and even at 6months she can only just manage 1 1/2 hours up. The other things that helped us was weaning off the dummy because each time it fell out she would get upset and tummy sleeping (not for everyone though).