Do you still rock your LO to sleep at night? Help?

Ardmhs83

My DS is almost 2 and 1/2 and sleeps really well at night. He sleeps in his toddler bed and sleeps from about 8:306:30/7 everyday. No complaints there.
Anyway...he has just really started fighting us at bed time. Horrible temper tantrums! He normally walks upstairs ok and let's us put his PJs on and read his books, but things turn bad after that. When we turn his light off he goes bonkers. We still rock him to sleep, but he runs around his room from us and won't let us get him to rock him. In order to calm him we normally have to say, "good night, Ly" then walk out for a second. He then calms down and realizes we are leaving. We are then able to walk in and rock him and lay him down peacefully.
The other night though he threw himself around the room and banged his head really hard on his toddler bed, so he is getting dangerous.
My DH suggest we stop rocking him. Read him his books, say his prayers and lay him in bed, kiss him and say we love you and just walk out. He is going to cry though and I hate for him to cry himself to sleep. I know when I tell you we did Ferber at 5 months, you will not understand why I can't let him do it now?!
A part of me will personally miss rocking him, but are we really continuing a bad habit. I mean if he wakes up at night he is always able to fuss back to sleep so he doesn't NEED to be rocked, he just expects it at bedtime. I also know he doesn't get rocked at nap time at daycare.
What do you do with your LOs and what is your opinion on this?
I was thinking just slowly shorten the time we rock him to where it eventually doesn't happen??
Sorry so long...TIA!

BelhurstBride

We still rock DD, at bedtime and for her nap. 

We're hoping to help her to become a little more independent when it comes to going to sleep and bought the NCSS for toddlers. We did it with her as an infant and while it takes more time than CIO it worked. Until her first set of molars came in, anyway. 

PunkyBooster

I still rock him, but rarely all the way to sleep. I like the cuddling time, it's one of the few times in the day he will sit still and let me hold him. 

 

Ardmhs83

PunkyBooster:

I still rock him, but rarely all the way to sleep. I like the cuddling time, it's one of the few times in the day he will sit still and let me hold him.nbsp;: nbsp;

I feel the same way! However, DH wants to just walk out and let him cry. He said, "I can rock him and he will just walk out." See we take turns every other night. That isn't good and not consistent. DH said I'm not the only one who calls the shots. I do call a lot of them just because I read more and share things with him and he always agrees, most of the time. I just don't know what to do here.

MrsWindyCity

We stopped rocking him around 18 months. At that point, he was going through a sleep regression, and it was just taking forever. He would STTN, but it was just becoming a battle and sort of ridiculous. He was still in a crib at the time but we started  by just putting him there while we sat in the glider and he was basically rolling, singing, moving all around, not acting remotely tired. When he calmed a little we'd pick him up and rock him. And then soon enough we got to the point where we could just leave him in the crib and go. He was a little whiny in the beginning, but not bad honestly - nothing like what I pictured  - and it was over fast.

That said, even though we haven't rocked him in over a year, I can tell  you that this age is just challenging for bedtime. The last month or so - oy! It's been difficult to say the least. The stall tactics are out of control. 

PunkyBooster

Ardmhs83:

PunkyBooster:

I still rock him, but rarely all the way to sleep. I like the cuddling time, it's one of the few times in the day he will sit still and let me hold him.nbsp;: nbsp;

I feel the same way! However, DH wants to just walk out and let him cry. He said, "I can rock him and he will just walk out." See we take turns every other night. That isn't good and not consistent. DH said I'm not the only one who calls the shots. I do call a lot of them just because I read more and share things with him and he always agrees, most of the time. I just don't know what to do here.

Gosh. That could be hard to settle.

DH has his own way of putting DS to bed. I think DS knows "daddy's routine" and "mommy's routine."

My routine is much longer and drawn out and spoiling of him than DH's. But DH is usually more successful at getting him down and quiet.

 

JulySpark05

We stopped rocking DD1 to sleep around 9 months and DD2 (5 months old) only gets rocked to sleep for naps. For bedtime she falls asleep on her own in her crib. Personally I wanted to stop rocking before the age of 1 to avoid having a hard time breaking the habit as my kids got older.

My Mom rocked us t'ill we were quite a bit older probably 2 or 3 years old. With that said, I have no experience with what you are going through but just wanted to wish you luck! 

Angela814

DD2 is 2.5 years. I rock her to sleep for her naps. At bedtime I usually rock her for 10 minutes or so, lay her in her crib, and sit next to her until she falls asleep. She wakes sometime between 12-1am and comes to bed with us for the rest of the night.

At bedtime she usually won't stop talking, so I often have to remind her that she needs to close her eyes and rest or I will have to leave so I can sleep too. Usually just leaving the room for a minute or two is enough.

I know some people will say rocking a 2 yo is a problem. Personally, I think it's only a problem if it's not working for you. I think I'd start by reminding him that you will rock him only if he behaves. If he runs around the room, you will leave. I'd also look into his bedtime routine and see if maybe he's getting overstimulated somewhere or if you may be missing his tired window somehow. I know if we try to put DD2 to bed too late, she'll talk and talk and talk and take forever to fall asleep.

Ardmhs83

I guess I need to explain my rocking to sleep a bit better. We never rock him to sleep...we rock him to calm him down and he is always awake when we lay him down and he falls asleep by himself.
He is just getting to the point that I guess he understands that once the light goes off and we reach out to rock him that it is time for bed. That is what causes the running around the room and freaking out. Once we do get him we only rock him for 10 min or less, lay him down awake and he falls asleep soon after.
We are just getting frustrated with the calming down and needing to rock to calm him down process. Like I said, it gets dangerous because he will throw himself around the room. I know...I have a difficult one on my hands.
I also just spoke with DH and he agrees to do the Ferber toddler method with him, and I'm ok with that...so we shall see!

LuckyT101

My DS was pretty much the same way. Eventually, when he started getting squirmy while rocking, he learned that I would put him in his bed. Now, he's to the point where we usually don't rock him before bed (because I've weaned him off slowly), but if he wants me to he will ask me. For your son,  I would give him the choice. I would say "Do you want to rock in the rocking chair before bed or do you want to go straight to bed? If you do not calm down, you are going straight to bed." He will learn the consequences of his actions and will have that reward to know it's better to calm down.

AmericanInOz

if he goes to sleep awake, and the rocking is to just calm him down, then I don't think the rocking is the issue - it's that he's more aware of the routine - like you say

I'd just totally mix up the routine - maybe go to your bed to read books, brush teeth, then go into his room and it's bed time. My dd screams and yells sometimes once we put her in her bed - but for her it's a show, last night she stood in bed yelling 'I NOT TIRED', but laid down shortly after and went to sleep. She knows once we say goodnight, love you, go to sleep now and shut the door - that's it (unless she yells that she needs the bathroom, then we bring her a few times and once she's gone - we don't go back in her room...)

I let her take a book to bed if she wants, and tell her to throw it on the floor when she's done. She likes that cause then she feels in control of WHEN she goes to sleep

GL!