No problem! I had a tough time in the first few months and I'm no expert but can just give you advice about what worked for me.
For self settling I started with Shush Pat. I would really recommend this. I ended up using white noise instead of shushing, as my baby was very spirited and I was going light headed. After a while I moved on to an approach called hands on, I still used shush pat (I was still using white noise, so I also used to speak reassuringly), but once baby was in the crib, I didn't get her up until 20mins (she often fell asleep from 5-16mins). Even with soft sleep training methods, there will be crying, so you really need to decide what you are comfortable with. I started shush pat around 8weeks. I had heard leaving it to long made the process harder (more tears) but I also didn't want to have my baby cry and prescribed to the 4th trimester idea. Therefore, cuddling your LO to sleep might start a bad habit but it's lovely and comforting for both of you. Decide what you are comfortable with, everyone has an opinion on what is best, I remember feeling totally overwhelmed.
Other tips to get self settling going would be:
1) get a wind down routine - getting a predictable routine in place before each nap and a longer version for bed time. Have some sleep cues such as a nursery rhyme, shutting the curtains, specific words. That way your LO won't be surprised when she/he is put in their crib.
2) some babies need short wind downs, some need quite a long time. 20mins before nap time, I take my LO away from stimulation and have quite cuddles and kicks. I think she's prone to overstimulation and this gets her to relax and go down easily.
3) think about swaddling - if your baby has a big jerking reflex this will really help, some do not need this
4) always check nappy before being put in crib (even if you not long changed it). my LO, always does secret poo's 2 minutes after a fresh nappy. 😂 Therefore, the last thing I do before placing her in the crib is check her nappy. It is so frustrating when your baby doesn't settle and you give up trying, just to find a poo in her nappy! Or if she did go to sleep, you pick her up and feel awful at her little red bottom!
5) allow time for baby to fall asleep. If your working on a 1h15min awake time, maybe put baby into their crib with 5-10mins before the deadline for them to take them self to sleep. (Every baby is different, so you'll need to figure out what works for your LO)
6) my baby cried loudest just before falling asleep. She would let out one last big effort of complaint and within a second be asleep. (I think this is pretty normal)
It sounds like your doing a great job reading your baby cues. Best of luck!