This is just my experience. My lo was and still is to an extent a TERRIBLE self soother. up until about 9 or 10 weeks, there was pretty much no self soothing. When she woke from a nap or it was time for nap or bed, it was a lot of shushing and rocking, whatever. At about that age, she suddenly decided she liked a pacifier. i am not joking - one day she would not take it, the next she loved it and almost immediately drifted off to sleep. She is now 16 weeks old and still hasn't really learned to suck her thumb well. she'll try but will not really put her thumb in right to be able to suck. so she still likes her pacifier. she is also still swaddled because she'll try to suck her thumb and will knock out the pacifier and get mad or will grab a hold of the pacifier and pull it out but not know how to put it back.
So, assuming your lo is 9 weeks, she could be like mine. it may take her another week or so (or longer) to slowly learn to sooth herself. Mine started late and it took her several weeks but she generally puts herself to sleep at nap and bedtime now. But like jaime-jaina& luke posted, make sure you put your lo down before the nap should actually start so that lo can winddown. I put lo down in her crib to look at her mobile about 20 minutes before nap begins. we'll talk for about 10 minutes and then i leave her to stare at the mobile and talk to herself and then when she's ready, she'll close her eyes. but if i wait too long, i will need to hold her and pat her bottom for about 10 minutes and then she's sleepy enough to fall asleep. this is really different from how she was at 9 weeks though.
