what's the best way to get your baby to sleep?

what do you find is the best way to get your baby to sleep?
atm, the best way to get ds to sleep is by bfing. what methods do other people use?

I wrap my bub, give him a cuddle, whisper nice words to him then put him in his cot with a dummy and stroke his forehead until he starts to close his eyes. It is so lovely and peaceful :)

i have really lucky with DD, i put her in her cot with her dummy ,pull the musical hippo and she just goes to sleep!!

At the moment, he still needs a little bit of convincing to go to sleep, so we give DS a little head massage whilst he is in his cot (until his eyes start rolling back in his head haha) and he has his dummy, then we stoke/pat his back until he goes to sleep :-)

BF is the only thing that will work here. Nothing else will cut it, the boy likes boob!

glad i'm not the only one arte!

Yep - DS would only boob to sleep LOL. And he still likes boob before going off to sleep at night!

DD on the other hand, I can wrap her and stick a dummy in and off she goes. I kinda miss feeding to sleep, but she's been such a windy bub I've HAD to burp her after each feed, and this means she wakes up and I end up putting her down awake. DS tho never had reflux or wind or colic, so I didn't have to worry about sitting him up to burp him.. just put him down after he fell asleep on the boob.

DD2-Feed, wrap, kisses from mummy, daddy and sister (if she is up) then i put her in bed. Start her music thing up then lights off, shut the door and walk out.

DD1- Feed, go into her room, kisses from mum and dad, dummy, her Isabella doll in her arms. Say Mummy loves you and ill see you in the morning. Light off, walk out shut door.

I have no dramas from either girls....been like this from a very early age....and i love it. Im glad its a night routine thats working for us.

DS would feed to sleep only until about 8m.

Either in the pushchair, laid flat, or DH does it (bum-patting). The man is a genius - he hadn't put DS to bed for a couple of weeks and his sleep has been shocking. He did it last night, DS slept 8-6. He's putting him to bed every night from now on.

He needs to be holding tight (vice-like, DH says) to Herr Hare, his soft bedtime bunny. I'm hoping that with time we can just give him the rabbit and he'll close his eyes!

For the first few months, she would feed to sleep. She still does it occassionally, but only really if she is very tired. She loves booby and I think she'd just have booby all night long if I let her.

At the moment though, it tkes a bit more than just the boob usually. When its time for her to go to sleep, we say goodnight and have kisses and cuddles from mummy and daddy. Then I take her into her room, put her music on and I breastfeed her which usually makes her really relaxed. If she is relaxed enough I can just put her down in the cot and she'll look around for a few minutes then fall asleep without a peep. If she is still a bit restless she'll sceam if I put her down like that... So, when she has finished having milk, I rub her tummy or pat her bum and then I put her down in the cot and she looks around, moves into a comfy position, sometimes she'll chat for a few minutes then fall asleep. Its working really well and she is going down to sleep with no fuss most nights and sleeps really well.

I put her in her cot when she starts to get grumpy and sleepy. I give her her night bottle and a spitrag tag to hold and put her dummy next to her. I will stroke her tummy while she drinks and say I love you and walk out. She will then either go to sleep by finishing her bottle and putting her dummy in herself, OR she will cry and I go in (no talking or eye contact) and lay her down again, put the dummy in and stroker her tummy a while and walk out. I repeat that if nessesary till she falls asleep by herself. Some night it just don't work AT ALL :cryinglaugh: and DH take us for a ride out of town, usually as a last resort when it is already WAAAAAAY past her bedtime and he see that I am getting a bit frustrated. God bless him!!!!

Arrrggggghhhh. Don't tell me the boob will lose its magic! It is the only parenting skill I have!

I would wrap bubs tight, feed in his room with soft music playing, burp & cuddle most time softly singing myself. Then I would give him a kiss, say goodnight & walk out.
Still the same, but now he goes into a sleeping bag instead of being wrapped.

Read the sleepy signs.

For the first few weeks, I found sleep was easy - she would feed and nod off. Then when she became a big more alert I was really determined to get her to self-settle. So we'd do the feed - play -sleep thing. I'd watch her really closely while she was playing for signs of tiredness and when I thought she was getting tired (lack of eye contact, gazing off), I would pick her up and say soothing things to her like "shhh... sleepy time now" over and over again. Then wrap her, rock her fora bit (but NEVER to sleep) put her in her crib and keep saying "sleepy time".

Gradually as she got older, her sleepy signs changed to thumb in mouth (that was GREAT -so easy to spot) and I dropped the wrapping because she just spend ages trying to get out of it.

Now her sleepy signs have changed AGAIN and thumb in mouth is not as accurate as it used to be because now it can mean hurty gums too! So now I watch for gazing into space again or if she's been up for a while and starts getting whingy/cranky that means she's been up for too long.

So basically my advice is let your baby show you when they're tired and then "getting them to sleep" is so much easier.