Sorry, but I disagree with this. Why wake a baby to put them to sleep. When advice goes against even common logic, we need to question the source. My pediatrician recommended Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child which gives a lot of great information on sleep studies and scientifically backs their methodology. Of course every child is different, but waking my child when he is asleep wasn't something that made any sense to me and after reading from several sources, this book makes the most sense to me so far. Of course, it is always a work in progress! :)

I went through that as well with my firstborn! Before he turned 6 months, I let him sleep in my arms while nursing. In the first few months, he'd stay asleep when I put him in his crib, but as he got older, he would cry as soon as he was out of my arms.

So finally when he was almost 6 months old, I did two things: one was to create a simple bedtime routine (nursing (or bottle-feeding), burping, reading books, turning off the lights, lullabies before and after placing in crib); and two, cry it out when the baby cried as I left the room. I didn't use the "extreme" cry-it-out version where you don't check in at all, but the "moderate" version where you check in every so often, depending on your comfort level (e.g, every 5 minutes, or 5 minutes as the first interval, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes.) The sleep training book I used was the Sleepeasy Solution, which also has great sample schedules in the book and online:
http://www.sleepyplanet.com/schedule.html.

It only took a few nights for my baby to get it and he didn't even cry for that long. The naps were much harder, but since he was sleeping very well through the night, I figured it was a tradeoff--I was told a lot of times great nighttime sleepers are not good nappers and vice versa.

There are a lot of different opinions on when you could start cry-it-out--some say 4 months, some 5 months, some say as soon as the baby weighs 12 pounds, some 15 pounds. I went with an adjusted 5 months--my baby was a month premature, so I waited till he was 6 months before I did cry-it-out with him.

The bedtime routine you could start anytime though, many say the earlier the better. I think the big "tip" with the bedtime routine is at any point you see that the baby's drowsy, cut the routine short and put him/her in the crib immediately. If s/he fell asleep at your breast, wake him/her to keep nursing or burp him/her, so s/he's awake but drowsy--the perfect time to put into the crib. If the baby's wide awake, keep reading/rocking/singing until s/he's drowsy.

Hope this helps! I'm obsessed with my baby's sleep, so please let me know if you have any more questions!

P.S. A shameless plug: you can buy the Sleepeasy Solution from Amazon through our website--just click on the Amazon logo from this page:
http://www.bobohelper.com/shop/all_retailers

I read that babies should be put into bed while they are still awake so that they can learn to fall asleep on their own. My baby eat until he sleeps most of the times. Any tips on how can I help my baby to fall asleep on his own??