At first I tried to sit on the mattress holding Eric in my arms and rocking him - but he was fighting and crawling away from me, so that clearly wasn’t working. Then I put him in the cot and he started to scream - I lied down on the mattress beside the cot, said good night to him, put my hand through the bars and near him and just lied still.

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Enough is enough - I had to get my baby to sleep like through the night and on his own, not in our bed. I think that our moving home created the opportunity for it - the familiar environment was changed and that made easier for me to break his sleeping habits. I tried to create new rules and get Eric accustomed to them.

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Even with a routine in place I work hard to make every day a good one for Eric. He gets excited easily and I found out that if we leave relaxing activities closer to his sleep time (like going for a stroll), then he is more likely to settle without a fight.

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I shared my white-noise experiment (hair dryer as sleeping aid, link) with other mothers in the mums group and raised some eyebrows. A couple of mums agreed that we should use “whatever works” and one other mum said that she found salvation in sleep training.

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I learned a new term “white noise”. White noise is the kind of noise vacuum cleaners, hairdryers and washing machines in spin cycle generate, and apparently babies love it.
I read that it helps them go to sleep and stay asleep - and desperately searching for anything to get Eric to sleep in his cot, I gave it a try.

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1. [...] shared my white-noise experiment (hair dryer as sleeping aid) with other mothers in the mums group and raised some eyebrows. A couple of mums agreed that we [...]

   Pingback by Teaching a baby to sleep in his cot - part three - Baby-Log — June 2, 2008 @ 7:19 am
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At first it seemed like mission impossible. The only place Eric would stop crying and sleep was on my chest. I lost count of how many nights I fell asleep sitting on the bed holding him in my arms, I was so tired.

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I had no idea that babies can’t fall asleep on their own. It never crossed my mind that a tired baby might need help to relax, close his eyes and nod off.

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Eric used to fall asleep when I swaddle and rock him, holding vertically, as if I was walking. Ever since he was born this jiggling motion worked every time, it relaxed him and eventually he would node off. The only thing I was worried about – what will happen when he’s too heavy for me to lift and rock, because he is a big baby. That worked beautifully for the first 6 months – but since yesterday it stopped. He screams and arches his back when Rob or I are trying this old technique on him. I guess he is telling us – I have grown out of that baby stuff :).

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