Bad Habits for sleep time

[SAS]

Hi it's me again

We have gotten into some bad habits with my 3month old and I need some help in breaking these habits now because I've been told it gets harder to break as they get older. Basically we walk my DD to sleep. She will not go to sleep unless she is walked. Once I see her tired signs I wrap her up tightly and start walking with her to get her to sleep because this is the only way she will sleep. Now that she is getting heavier it's getting harder for me to walk with her. We can walk anywhere from 10 mins to 30 mins to get her to sleep. How can I get her to sleep without walking her. Since she is only 3 mths old I think she might be a bit young for controlled crying. Has anyone tried controlled crying with a three month old. I am prepared to try anything. Thanks.

SAS

[pickles]

It does get harder as they get older as they use the walking and patting as a sleep association ( we had the dummy ) as soon as they get older whenever they come up into that light sleep ( every 45 mins ) they expect you to do the same thing again. Try and contact your local centre that deals with sleep issues - we have Ngala in Perth. you can go to a session where they help you to identify different cries - grizzles , angry and upset. You respond to the upset everytime and something like patting them while they are in their cot until they calm down. From Ngalas advise controlled crying really shouldnt be used until they are 10 -12 months old. Good luck

Pickles
Olivia - 5/2/03
Darcy - 29/3/05

[june05isttimer]

Hi there

Our bub is 9 weeks old and I was doing what you were doing with the patting and pacing to put her to sleep.
I have now picked up the tired signs and she loves to suck so we wrap her and put her in her cot and give her her dummy. Her eyes almost always now fall back in her head and she is off. Lately she has taken to wanting it at her big nighttime sleep which I have succumbed to but I go in about 20mins or so later and pull it out of her mouth which saves any wake up during the night when she loses it or it falls in a place where she tries to put her head.

We had trouble initially in the first few weeks but I then started bathing her as part of her nighttime routine and she now knows that when bath time comes she then has a feed and goes straight down for her big sleep.
The bath seems to exhaust her just that little bit more so she settles much easier.
Its quite amazing to see she can be screaming and crying but as soon as you strip her naked and put her in the bath she is an angel. Im amazed at how she knows !!!!!!

I guess long story short, maybe try a dummy or maybe introduce a warm bath everynight as part of her routine, you might find she may get just that little more tired and won't need that pacing and patting !!!!