how do you lay a baby down w/o them waking up?

[caedmyn]

I must be doing something wrong. At least 40% of the time when I lay my 8 month old down in his crib after he's asleep he wakes up. I'm so tired of putting him down for naps 4 times a day because he won't stay asleep. And if he does stay asleep he rarely sleeps more than 30 minutes and is perpetually tired and crabby because he doesn't get enough sleep

[Swimmingly]

At that age we started working on putting them in bed "half asleep". In theory then they are finishing the job themselves and should sleep longer.
Well, ODD eventually got the hang of it, though I can't for the life of me remember what age she was... YDD is 10.5 months and still working on it. I can put her down "half asleep" and about half the time she will sleep. Sometimes she wakes up immediately and I'm screwed. Sometimes she is quiet for awhile but doesn't really fall asleep, and starts whining after a bit. Ah well, we'll get there.

[rosefall]

Even though it seems like the roughest transition, DD does best if I lay her on her belly and then pat her back for a minute.

[BSWmama]

Yeah, I think it is impossible to put them down without ever waking them up. Rarely, DS won't really wake up (like during the night). Other times, he does wake up or is already awake but is tired/groggy and knows the routine enough (nurse with mom in bed, get carried to his crib) that he doesn't protest. Other times, he cries and we do the routine all over again/try again later - some days, it seems like we "try" at having a nap many, many times.

More and more often, I put him down awake but tired after nursing him (as he falls asleep at the breast less often now), turn on his crib soother aquarium, and he does the rest. I guess it just comes with age? (My son is almost 9 months).

[Quickshep19]

I have never been able to do it. The hubs can though. So not fair.

[caedmyn]

I've tried the half asleep and the patting the butt thing with no luck. I just laid him down asleep for the 3rd time in the last three hours and he woke up yet again and I just left him in his crib crying. I wish CIO worked for naps but I've tried it 3-4 times and 1.5 or 2 hours later he's still screaming and I give up. Oh well, I need a break and it won't hurt him to cry for a while. Maybe he'll magically go to sleep this time. Ha!

[MavericksMama]

This is what I do-

Once my son nurses to sleep, I let him rest for about 1-2 minutes to get into a deeper sleep. Then, I wrap his blanket tight around his arms, so if he startles, he doesn't wake himself up. I let him rest about 3 more minutes, then slowly stand up with him. I walk gently down the hallway to our bed. I lie him down on his back (arms are still wrapped tightly), and as soon as he is on the bed, I just rest there for about 15 seconds with my arms pinned under him. Then I really slowly pull my arms out from underneath him. Cover him with the sheet, then pull his blanket off.

[ho11yb]

Just offering i've been there momma. It is tough. My ds never took a nap longer than 30 minutes until he was 14 months old. He still needs help getting to sleep for naps. The best trick i've got is to not set him down right after I think he is asleep, but give it another couple or few minutes. Then, I have one hand under his upper body/neck and one under his bum/legs, and lay him down on his back. I slide my upper hand out first making it as flat as possible AND at the same time half-bouncing his butt/legs with the other hand (we bounce on an exercise ball to get him to sleep, so it works for him). Only once I have my top hand out and he seems to be going back to sleep or staying asleep do i slow the bouncing of the hand on his bum and finally slide out that hand. He is much better now and will often not require as much assistance as he used to, but it wasn't until he was well over a year old that he would often just roll over onto his side/back and fall back asleep after I set him down.

[blessed22]

you mean at 9 or 10 months this doesn't get any better??

DD is 6 months old and we ALWAYS have this same EXACT problem... guess it will be a while... *sigh*

[Tweedledum]

The best solution I found was to let DD nap in the swing when she was that age (we had the Fisher-Price papasan cradle swing). Luckily, she's always been tiny, so we were able to get away with it until 18 months. After that, naps were hit or miss.