How do I put baby down awake?!

Question

Obviously I do it by putting the baby down awake but here's the deal - we rock him (8 wks old) all the way to sleep after his bottle and he's been giving us two 5 hour stretches.  His first wake up at midnight is truly due to hunger as he takes a full 5-6 oz.  His next wake is more habit as he was only taking about 2 oz so I started giving him a paci and moving him from his crib to the rock n play to squeeze two more hours of sleep before breakfast bottle.

All that said, I know that we should stop rocking him all the way to sleep soon or it will be a sleep association that will be almost impossible to break....but....I don't want to mess up the decent sleep we are getting now.  Any tips?  Do I let him cry?  Do I stand there holding his paci in until he's out?  Help me!  What are you doing?

Answer

If you haven't started putting him down sleepy, but not asleep yet, I wouldn't start doing it at night. Practice on daytime naps first, then try it at night. Rock him until he's just about to fall asleep then put him down. I'm reading a book called the No cry sleep solution - it has tons of tips to get baby to sleep through the night. You can actually find a free pdf version online. I'm doing what I can from the book and it seems to be helping my LO go from waking 4-6x per night to 2-3! Latest recommendations are against the cry it out method, plus 8 weeks is too young to do that anyway. The real sleep training begins at 3-4 months!

Answer

I put my girl down sleepy in the day and she'll settle herself. She actually sleeps better then than if she's fully asleep when I put her down as it disturbs her. 
At night she tends to wake up and play just as it's bed time so I started just putting her in her crib awake and letting her play until she settled. She now drifts off in 15-20 mins and has just started sleeping through from 10pm till 6am. Just make sure once they're down you don't talk to them. If she needs changing or start crying then I'll change her and give her a hug until she calms down but then I put her back.

Answer

After my baby's last bottle at around 930-10pm I burp him, change him, swaddle him with his arms out, paci in and lay him down. Lights are low or off and sound turned down a notch. He falls to sleep within 5-10 minutes after laying him down. I will usually step into the hall or do something in the room where he can't see me, go to the bathroom or something. He does better with me not being in his vision and sitting right there. Nights that he's fussy and not falling asleep right away I walk around the house with him a little while. Also for his naps during the day I put him down as soon as he falls asleep. So he's not really used to being held while sleeping.

Answer

My 9 yo was rocked as a baby.... up until she was 5 years old!

Answer

I don't worry about putting him to bed awake at night.  He usually falls asleep after his evening feed, and I just swaddle him and let him sleep. During the day, i swaddle him for naps and use a sound machine. It's a bit of a sleep prop, but naps are so important to his well being right now, I'm letting it slide. He eats after he wakes from the nap, so he doesn't nurse to sleep during the day. He does cry a bit at the start of a nap, but it doesn't go on for more than a minute or two. It took a full week of attempts at every nap time to "train" him, so don't get discouraged if it doesn't work right away. Oh also, i give him 3-4 minutes of cuddles while walking (his favorite activity) around before a nap. This seems to help.

How do I put baby down awake?!

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