self settling help

Hi melissag

Sorry, I don't have any personal advice as DS seemed to get the hang of self settling on his own, but have you had a look at The Sleep Store website? I have them bookmarked, their advice is great.

Here's the area on Self Settling

Hope it may help!

Hi, some suggestions that have worked for us:

Introduce a comforter, we have a fluffy rabbit material thing, have it between you and Ds when feeding so he recognises the smell and remind him of a comforting time, put him to bed with it every night.

Leave him at least 15 mins at night before going in or if you do go in just give him the comforter

Feed him to sleep but wake him up and read a story in dim light before popping him in his cot. Sit next to him, hand on chest till he falls asleep

Get a gloworm type thing that plays music for a set time, he may then start to associate the music and comforter as a sleep thing so in the night you can pop it back on and when he is older can do it himself.

Is he warm / cool enough?

Is the room too light / too dark?

White noise on repeat all nigh

That's all I can think of right now, hope something helps

This is what we use Sleepyhead cozie
It is good because it is breathable so I don't worry so much if the little one puts it over her face ( I do go in and remove it once she is asleep).I guess a teddy would work but I imagine they would get attached to just one or else would want them all at the same time :)

Good luck.. Hope it gets better for you

We use a glow worm thing (I think its a sea horse) and have a movement monitor and there hasn't been any problems. Is there supposed to be? The music only goes for 5 mins, during which time I either have my hand on his chest or am lurking nearby.

Its probably no help as you're already using a sleep sack, but DS is still swaddled, with one arm out, as they flail all over the place and he winds himself up. Doing one thing consistently i.e. wrapping and glowy toy and hand on chest for a minute, whatever it is, seems to eventually trigger that it is 'nigh nighs' or nap time.

Edited to add - I know that it isn't 'self-settling' but its working for us all much better that previously

Edited by shesmiles

We have been having the same problems, DD can self settle during the night - except for the one time each night she wakes up hungry - but not usually during the day.

We recently introduced a lullaby glowworm which is starting to work, she used to lie there and watch it but now her eyelids start dropping while its playing, along with wrapping during the day and sleeping bag at night (doesnt seem to work the other way round!!), shushing and hand on chest. Unfortunately at the moment she is teething which messes everything up but most of the time I dont have to feed her to sleep, maybe to nearly asleep then I can put her down and shush/hand/glowworm her the rest of the way.

She has several soft toys that we might try as comforters if we dont get any further with what we are doing, and I am going to check out that baby centre link too.

Good luck.

I just need to work on this 2am feed now. She used to sleep through...