springdance,
we've been training our baby for more than a month already ... to get him to sleep by himself. when it's near 8pm, we will change his diaper, clean his face, feed and then burp him. after that, leave him in the dark room all by himself. we close the door so that we won't be bothered by his fussing sounds.
he will kick and fuss and then fall asleep by himself (we stopped swaddling him ever since he was 2-3 weeks old). initially he cried quite a bit and can kick for an hour plus before he falls asleep by himself. on and off, we have to go and pacify him if the cries get terrible. then as he gets more accustomed to the routine, he will fuss 45 mins, then 30 mins, and then currently it's 15 mins and he'll fall asleep by himself.
we also encourage him to suck on his own fist as a form of self-pacification. cos he doesn't like pacifiers at all.
day time we don't do this, cos when he cries normally someone will go pick him up. hmm, maybe because of that, we have never been successful in getting him to fall asleep by himself in the afternoons.