self settling

We’re in the process of doing this now and it’s going well so far

1. Feed her until drowsy but awake
2. Put her into cot
3. If she is grizzly, soothe by either patting or rest a hand on her
4. If she gets really upset, we do pick her up but then put her down once calm
5. Repeat the above until she falls asleep usually within 5/10 minutes. The first night took like 40 minutes 🫠 but had a huge improvement within a few days

Our next step is to do the same but without touching her and shushing only, then eventually we’ll put her down without any intervention. It’s a bit of a longer process but we didn’t want to do cio either.

My only issue is I’m breastfeeding and she wakes every 3ish hours for that/comfort but one thing at a time 😅

I’d also recommend having a routine, book, bath, sleep sack and white noise works well for us

Mine only started self settling at about 15 months, it’s not natural for all of them! We did a slow transition from rocking to patting while cuddling, then patting in the cot. He still has a dummy and often takes 20ish mins to settle, sometimes with a bum pat or two but usually I can just sit in the room with him and he goes x

Theyre still really little. They dont have a prefrontal cortex so you are their comfort. Mines only recently started to self settle and shes 2. She will go and get a pillow, her soft toy and a blanket to go to sleep on

What you can do is put them down sleepy but awake and you can either sit and wait for them to go and slowly leave the room earlier and earlier or pat their bum till they go to sleep

If it’s taking 30 mins for him to go to sleep he’s not tired enough at bedtime but very normal for children to need comfort. I still cuddle my 2.5 year old to sleep x