How do I get my baby to fall asleep quickly at night?

* taking a short detour from this week's themes.

Let's get something straight right from the get go... I don't do CIO... "cry it out" more like "scream it out". I was subjected to my neighbours baby girl screaming for what felt like hours every night for 2 months whilst her parents let her "CIO" to learn to self soothe. I can't bear to hear my child in distress, CIO is not for me.

So I have always nursed down as part of our ecological breastfeeding relationship.

My nursling had started falling into an irritating habit of late, she has always nursed down, and for the last 6 months we have nursed lying down (we co-sleep), but lately it's started taking over an hour to fall asleep. I was getting irritated so I knew something had changed and I had to alter our night time ritual. First thing we tried was
dropping the afternoon nap, score, day 1 it took us 20 minutes to fall asleep that night.

Day 2 it took an hour... mmm... Time for another change. Previously I would give her dinner, then a bath, then some play time, then I would try to nurse her down (full feed, both sides). But lately she had started having a full feed and then play about for an hour and then nod off. Tiring and irritating. 

So day 3 we dropped her afternoon nap, at 5 she ate dinner, then had a bath, then a lie down for a full feed. Once she had nursed her fill she sat up, so we went to play for an hour then I took her back to the family bed and she  nursed down in 8 minutes! Brilliant I thought... Finally.

BUT on day 4 she started teething, we don't teeth well in our house, her entire routine gets jumbled. So she missed her morning nap and was overtired but would not nurse down, despite 3 seperate attempts. I have a home made wrap sling which I decided to put her in to calm her and lo and behold she fell asleep in 5 minutes and slept for 1.5 hours (the longest daytime nap in a long while)! That night I put her in it again to nurse down after a few failed attempts and once again she fell right asleep. I let her sleep on my chest, assuming that when she woke I could put her down to go back to sleep. Uh no... She ended up staying awake till 11pm. Rookie mistake.

So today I nursed her down for her daytime nap in the wrap sling and let her sleep on my chest (once again a long peaceful sleep) and tonight I nursed her down in her wrap sling and moved her straight into the family bed! So much easier and simpler... Why didn't I think of this before, why didn't anyone tell me? 


Ps: I think the reason she falls asleep so quickly is because she gets "immobilised" in the sling which forces her body to relax. On the bed she rolls and sits up and shuffles about (she has just started crawling and is very inquisitive by nature).

I will call it our gentle no-cry quick and simple sleep solution! Woot!

Make your own wrap sling, instructions here  (mine cost £7!)