[~Supernova~]

He is definitely not a perfect sleeper...so I'm not bragging by any means lol He catnaps for most of the day and it drives me batty, but when he DOES sleep, he prefers to do it by himself.

Anyway, thank you all, it's reassuring to know I'm not a horrible neglectful mother, and I'll try to let go of the guilt and just enjoy it It was getting to the point where I was spending ZERO time with DD because my whole day was full of settling and re-settling ad nauseum.

[~ky~]

If I wrap my DD and plug a dummy in she sucks it a couple of times and drops off to sleep. If I'm holding her, she never quite settles properly and only catnaps.

[Pooks*potters]

OP I just discovered the same thing about my 7 week old DS yesterday... it's working well, like PP I wrap him, tuck him in tight, give him his dummy, pat him and tell him goodnight. He grizzles for a while but drifts off to sleep. My theory is that me settling him doesn't work because he is so interested in things, he gets stimulated even by just me being there and doesn't want to sleep and miss anything. But alone in his bassinet it is so boring he sleeps

[Livsh]

Yep, same with my two...it was almost like being held was overstimulting for them, like they were trying to stay awake because they were being held, if that makes any sense!

DD used to take quite a while to get to sleep and would be grunting and carrying on for about 30 minutes at night, but if I went in to try and settle her then she should just take another 30 minutes to settle!

[QueenOfTheDesert]

DS1 wouldn't have a bar of self settling for a Very Long Time!
DS2 preferred it from a very young age!
No difference in parenting but a massive difference in personality/temperament of babies.

Do what works for your little one. They are all individual.

[mum201]

I don't know what has happened but in the last couple of days my 4 MO will not settle when I am in the room. If I just leave him to 'sort himself out' he grumbles, whinges and rolls around his cot for 5-10 mins and falls asleep. This is a baby who would not do day sleeps outside of my arms/sling until 3 months old, and when he did start sleeping in his cot it took so much ssshhhing, patting etc etc.........then over the long weekend I was putting him to sleep 'normally' (which I had gotten down to a 10 min process) and after an hour he still wouldn't settle, so I walked out to recollect myself for a min, and when I went back in he was asleep. He has just worked out how to go to sleep, it's amazing!

[mummyinahurry]

My 11 week old has always done this when overtired. Gets sick of me rocking patting shushing I think. As soon as I give up and leave him in his room, he happily falls asleep

My mum reckons some babies get sick of being held and I think that's probably right

[klr70]

My DS (now 6mths old) "self settled" (for want of a better term) pretty much since birth... If he's tired, he goes to sleep wherever he is - in the pram, in the car, on his mat on the floor, his cot, wherever... Doesn't matter if there's noise or light, he doesn't even need to be swaddled (putting him in his "wrap me up" is his signal for a night time sleep). He might "talk"/"grizzle" for a few minutes, sometimes longer... then "Hey! Presto!", sleeping baby. I can't claim any credit for this, though - it's all him. I just go with the flow. (and as a PP mentioned, it's not PC to talk about your baby that will sleep anywhere, when others are struggling with screaming-non-sleepers).

[~Supernova~]

and as a PP mentioned, it's not PC to talk about your baby that will sleep anywhere, when others are struggling with screaming-non-sleepers.

It's only because I have had a screaming non sleeper that I thought I had to persist in rocking/patting him to sleep. I thought SURELY if we persisted long enough he would sleep lol.

Anyhoo, he is being put down awake for all sleeps now and going great guns. The only time it seems to take a bit of me going in and shushing/patting/sticking dummy in is when he is really overtired. Oh god I hope it stays this way, I may just get some of my sanity back

[hyperkitty]

My LO is 3weeks old and I for the first time put her to bed awake last night as I needed to pee really badly LOL

She grizzled (not cried) for all of 30-45 seconds and I felt horrible listening to her but by the time I got back upstairs she was almost asleep, so I left her, I felt at a loss as to what to do because I was use to just sitting in the rocking chair and cuddle her until she was asleep, it was my favorite time of the day but when I would get up to put her to bed she would stir and I would have to walk with her a bit to put her back to sleep.

So yes I think some babies must prefer to self settle and it gives me more time at night to have some me time whilst DH is home, So I am hoping it works again tonight.