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What things do you do or what products do you use to help your LO fall asleep?

Amanda,

When my girls wouldn't go to sleep I had to put them in the car and drive and drive and drive! Thank God gas wasn't $4 a gallon back then, lol!

I used the driving technique with my others but Sophie is sooo different she doesn't seem to like car rides. She was starting to sleep till 4am but it is back to waking every few hours again. I'm tired!

Good Morning, Amanda, Jen, and other reading mommies! (oops, and Julie - I was typing when you were posting. )

A friend of mine told me for her very fussy baby she'd play loud Christian music, so I tried that with ours (used Songs 4 Worship CDs - still some of his favorites!!) when he couldn't fall asleep one night. Worked like a charm. So, we decided to just make that one of our nightly routines, listening to music a little loudly. When I told her how well it worked, she said the only reason she played it loud was to help her from the crying. I laughed because I just thought she meant it made the baby go to sleep faster. So, we were able to turn down the volume since we didn't necessarily need to overcompensate for the crying. We'd stand in the dark family room, holding our little guy, dancing, and singing (singing voices only an untrained baby could love) and off he'd go.

With our second, he gained a pound a week for the first 5 weeks and couldn't regulate his body (bowel movements, sleep that sort of thing), we actually thought he had colic when his crying first began.

We tried "white noise" like turning the radio station to a fuzzy station, the music that worked with our first, to no avail. I realized it just may have to happen, without any resolution (he was growing, thriving, and there were no serious health issues), but I was not going to allow him to do it alone in a bassinet, though. I knew that. So, I just decided I'd vaccum through it.

That seemed to be the ticket for our second. The vaccum!!!!! We had the cleanest floors in town and a sleeping baby. We burned up several vaccum motors when we finally thought to just buy a small plug in Dirt Devil. That Dirt Devil was a HIT! After 2 weeks, our little guy was over his regulation issues.

Something else we've heard that helps is for Daddy to hold baby bare chested and rest his chin gently on baby's head. Through the softspot, baby can feel Daddy's pulse and this can be comforting to baby.

Wearing baby in a sling all snuggled up can oftentimes make baby feel enwombed again, thus comforted. Also, all babies have changes to routine and temperament when going through growth spurts. So what works one day or week or month, may not another. Trying different things may help.

A good read for those parents whose babies have those fussy times (don't they all to some degree?? lol) is called the Fussy Baby Book by Dr. Sears.

Here is his site with suggestions on soothing baby, too:

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/5/T051200.asp

Anyway, these things worked for us and a few others for those we know when they went through some fussy times. GOOD LUCK!!

We used to swaddled, but now she doesnt like it. I will also admit to a certain amount of rocking to sleep . The best purchase I've made though is a white noise machine. Ours has 14 settings, and we put it on the rainfall one and she sleeps wonderfully to it.

I wear my baby in a Mei Tai and he's out in minutes for like 2 hours!

Also I use essential oils [Lavender mostly]...you can put a drop or so in damp wash cloth and sponge them off. Lavender has great natural relaxers/stress relievers in it.

We always rocked our babies! I LOVED it! My son (2.5) still likes to rock for one minute and then goes to bed awake. But he must have that one minute with one of us in the rocking chair. It is sweet that he loves it so much and it is a part of the bed time routine.