Transitioning our sleep routine

bino63

I rock my daughter to sleep and I probably will rock her to sleep as long as she wants to. I am just wondering if anyone's LO's got to a certain age and decided they didn't want to on their own. 

 I understand as she gets older it will be good for her to go to sleep lying down in her own bed. But I was hoping it would happen naturally.

jshf

DS1 always needed a little "help" transitioning his sleep routines. I used to nurse him to sleep until he was about 18 months when we weaned him. Then we held/rocked him to sleep until about 22 months. Since then we've slowly gotten him to fall asleep on his own. We still wait by his room until he falls asleep. I'm waiting for the day I can just turn off the light and leave! If u want gentle ways to help ur chd transition, I would read NCSS, the sleep lady shuffle. Both gave great gentle ideas. GL!

KCKappa

My mom rocked my three siblings and me to sleep for as long as we wanted. She says between 2 and 3 years old we all transitioned on our own to going to sleep in our bed. None of us were great sleepers either (ie, not STTN until well past 1 yo), so that gives me hope (as I nurse and rock my 9 mo to sleep at least 4-5 times/night)!

bino63

Thank you!

 

TiffanyBerry

When she was nine months or so, for bedtime, the normal swaddle/bounce/shsh/etc. routine wasn't quite working the same. She needed a change.  Not that she was in any way ready to be put down by herself (and still isn't).  It took a little while to figure out that she still needed bouncing down, but no swaddle.  Then there was the transition to no more bouncing, just laying in bed nursing and then next to her.  It's been a long set of transitions, and it's always taken at least a week to figure out the new routine.  My DD, however, is a notorious fighter of sleep.

jsugrin

DS #1 was rocked to sleep until close to 2, I don't remember exactly when we stopped.  He just didn't want to be in the chair anymore, I think he was getting too big to be comfortable. We transitioned to simply reading in bed and at 4 that's still our routine.  Our biggest difference is that until around 3 it could take 30 minutes at least to get him to sleep and now he falls asleep in 5-15 min.

I think that since you are fine with the rocking that you'll find at some point she just starts to squirm when you sit down, or she won't fall asleep in the chair anymore ( DS #2 did this, all of a sudden around 8 months he wanted to go in his crib alone and play until he fell asleep).  Just continue to follow her lead and go with what works.