The body of your infant is hard wired to develop a sleep management system. Allowing that  mechanism to evolve is a wonderful gift to your child. The complexity of the internal feedback loops within the system of your child are beyond our understanding but they are there. Best case scenario is ‘we stay out of the way’ and complex feedback loops develop within your child that shift him or her from wakeful states to sleeping states and back again.

To work with this internal system you must bear in mind the process, not the goal. There are many ways of accomplishing the goal; drugs, white noise, music, rides in a stroller or car, but use of these aids does not directly promote the maturation of the sleep management system within your child. Judicious (minimal) use of these aids creates the ideal conditions for development of an efficient sleep system.

The internal experience of an infant is at all times potentially chaotic. They have not acquired enough experience of ‘being’ to have organized their experience in useful ways. That being the case, all associations, in the experience of the child, become associations to ‘being’ itself. Worry about what your child may associate with sleep (your lap, the breast or bottle, etc.) are premature. Given the state of the organizational system of your child all moments of comfort and all moments of discomfort, contribute to the emergence of a pattern in the foundation of experience that color ‘being’ itself as a good thing (or not).

In infancy, it is best to ensure your child’s comfort at every opportunity. Neuronal connections will evolve most easily if their evolution is not compounded by the challenge of adaptation to inordinate amounts of pain and floods of emotionality. Infancy is necessarily charaterized by intermittent pain and floods of emotionality; the fewer moments of suffering the better.

1. A relatively quiet environment reduces the load upon the pattern recognition system. Note: from the point of view of the child’s brain, white noise, music, audio tapes, etc. are ‘information’. As such they present a demand upon the mental processing system of the child. Granted, they may lull your child to sleep, but again, the goal is not sleep itself, but rather, sleep via a process that calls upon your child’s own evolving sleep management system.
2. You will often find your infant falls asleep while feeding or being held. Swaddling the child allows the subjective experience of being held to carry over as he or she is placed into a sleep bed. The transfer may temporarily disrupt his or her sleep. Temporary insertion of a pillow beside the infant may re-create the experience of being held for your child and permit the child to slip back into a sleep state (don’t walk away leaving the pillow in place).
3. Use of your voice is a powerful tool, coo to your child. Pats on the back may help. If your child’s effort to sleep is thoroughly disrupted, you may hold, walk with or rock your child. If you coo while doing so the sound of your voice will become associated with comfort. This sets the stage for effective use of your voice alone in the future.
4. Infants cannot develop ‘habits’. Habits require ‘ego involvement’. The body can develop a natural rhythm. Natural rhythms may be found but they will be necessarily temporary. Too much growth is occurring wiithin your child for adaptation to hold over time. Growth and maturation amount to ‘new worlds to navigate in the experience of your child. Given this, do not view any observable sleep patterns as ‘progress’. There is a temporary status quo but it cannot be maintained by your child. Rather, your child is ‘at the mercy’ of ever-changing conditions.

There is a ‘developmental dance’ for you and your child. As noted in other posts, you are growing into being a good parent while they are growing into a good kid. Relax, you will be ‘good enough’ and that will do.