I was at Plunket group this morning and the Karitane nurse made a comment to the group that by DS’s age (10 weeks) we should be putting our babies to bed awake otherwise we’ll still be rocking them to sleep when they’re 1.

Never really thought about it before but rocking Jack to sleep has probably come about as a result of his reflux, he also went through a stage where he would only sleep on me during the day, we’re only just getting the reflux under control now with meds and getting back to napping during the day I just don’t feel I could handle trying to tackle this right now as well.

So how did/do you get your babies to sleep? Any advice?

I breast fed Elise to sleep for months. Reflux babies break all the rules, they don't really apply. Elise happily fell asleep from awake on her own once her reflux was under control.
Once the reflux is under control then takle the going to sleep issues if you still have them.
Best of luck
Claire

oh we are so i this at the moment. My darling daughter is aseep in my arms as we speak...I think we need a review of her meds but boy is it draining and I know the fun has only just begun.
Claire-My babe falls asleep on the breast too but put her down anytime after that and we are back to square one.
I wish I had the miracle cure for us all. I no fir my son once his meds started to work I let him CIO for awhile and that helped settle him into routine and then at least he would sleep alittle part of the day for me!! But can't remember how old he was then. I just know what your going thru as we are still trying to work things out too
Hugs and good luck

I once read a good analogy which describes how I see it:
Imagine being put to sleep on the fluffiest of warm clouds and waking up in a bath tub!
Keeping this I wanted to make sure that I would never scare Olivia because at a certain age (around 8 months) it starts to disturb them quite deeply. But in saying that, now Olivia doesn't sleep anywhere but her bed, which can be not so great when you want to toddle off down town and get some shopping done with a nice baby sleeping in your stroller. Instead she will squak like a mad chicken till she gets a nap (usually 30 mins top in a stroller). So make your own decision based on what you think are the pro's and con's of the situation.

I have always put Ella to bed awake, i pop her down, wrap her in her safety sleep, cover her up, turn on her monitor, turn on her fisher price aquarium/light show, plug her dummy in, say good night and stroke her hair and walk out. She drops instantly. This is after observing her sleepy signals like rubbing her eyes and whinging.

oh and if i dont stroke her hair as its our routine she whinges until i do hehe

With both my daughters I have rocked them to sleep in my arms. #1 is a wonderful sleeper now, she goes to bed every night, has a story and goes to sleep.

#2 is seven months old and I have to rock her or get her to drop off on me straight up and down... then it's quietly into bed. 20 minutes later it's go and re dummy her. 2 minutes later it's pick her up to stop her from screaming. 5 minutes later we're rocking again. This has got worse lately since her reflux got worse, and is now our current routine.

I'm a great believer of doing what works for you, cos you'll figure it out at the other end! Besides - what 15 year old ever wanted to be rocked to sleep by mummy?

we did a bit of both actually.. depended how bad her reflux was at the time..

Hi, don't worry what the karitane nurse said, said the same to me, infact its probably the same one. Like the others have said Reflux is different, they need rocking etc, we rocked toby to sleep for a long time, then got him off that, then we stroked his head till he fell asleep, now he pretty much goes to sleep by himself, not perfect but hey we don't know any different. so my answer to you is you do what you have to and don't worry what anyone else says!! We haven't had to rock Toby for over a year now thank goodness we were wearing the carpet out! Sally

DD#1 went down awake from day one and slept beautifully. DD#2 (Twin 1) goes down awake and screams for about 3-4 minutes before she fals asleep. DD#3 (Twin 2 with reflux) goes down awake with the dummy which she usually spits out before she falls asleep, but she seems to need to suck to settle.

DD is 4 1/2 months now and routine does seem to be what she prefers now, though it didn't have any effect before. I change her nappy, then hold her upright while singing a lullaby or two (and hoping for a final burp if she hasn't managed it before) and then tuck her in. We have a musical mobile and as soon as she hears it, she smiles as if she knows that it's bedtime. She is increasingly able to settle herself, but as others have said, when the reflux is playing up no routine in the world is going to help. Sometimes she just needs to cry for a few minutes and will then drop off. Often she wants to fall asleep at the breast. Rocking worked for ages as did a dummy, but she's gone off both now... Sucking a finger for a few minutes still works, and she's finding her own hands to suck on too. I just persist with the routine on her good days and do whatever works on the bad days.

Thanks for your replies guys, I was having a real "feeling like a crappy mother" day after the plunket visit.

The bit that got to me was when she said now you're got his reflux under control you should be doing this to get him to sleep etc

Then thinking about it I started to wonder, do we have his reflux under control? He's much better than he used to be, he's napping during the day (albeit only 30mins at a time) but he's still pretty unsettled and cries quite a bit, the nurse mentioned that crying should peak at about 8 weeks, but Jack just seems to by crying more as time goes on?

How "under control" can you get your babies reflux? I'd been told that as long as he has reflux he'll be hard work but manageable whereas the nurse was talking like if his meds are working it will be like he doesn't even have it? so confused

Olivia didwn't "chill" till she was properly medicated, if you think that Jack could be doing better then take it up with your Dr, see if you can get some more relief for him.

I think I will take him back to our GP, I thought we had the reflux under control as he's been 100 times better than he used to be but the more I think about it and talk to other mums the more I think he's still not as good as he could be. Its so hard when they can't tell you how they're feeling.