Does anyone know any methods for teaching a baby to self-settle that don't involve control crying. Yasin used to self-settle most of the time but his routine got disturbed a few months ago and since then he has needed to be bounced to sleep (he sleeps in a hammock) on most occasions. Its not like I pace the floor rocking him - its just bouncing a bed for a little while. My MIL has been telling DH that this is something wrong and pressuring him to use control crying (like all new parents DH is a bit suseptible to letting unsolicited advice get to him). I tend to feel that the issue is one of convenience (it is convenient to put baby down at night and walk away) but what is convenient for adults may not be what is best kindest for babies. I have convinced DH to ignore the advice for now but we have to go to brunch on sunday and she will be on about it again. I want to tell her to just butt out but since that isn't possible without an arguement it would be nice to be able to shut her up by having a coherant plan that doesn't involve controlled crying or at least to be able to tell her that other babies have learnt to self-settle without it.
Am I being completely naive to think that he will eventually learn on his own through gentler methods?