Did I make a mistake?

MYRNALOY

My LO has STTN since she was a little over 2 mos., she is now 8mos(where did all the time go).  I am by no means bragging, but she has gotten used to her bedtime routine....which is not very strict.  I have always let her sleep when she was ready, we would have bottle, play, take bath and recently added reading a book to the routine, and end up with rocking her to sleep.  The transfer to the crib has run smoothly since 4mos. Until the epic battle last night.  I rocked her and to the crib we went...she sounded peacefully asleep.  As soon as I placed her in the crib she rolled over, sat up and began crying and reaching for me.  We were both up til 3:30am and she woke at her usual 7:45.  I know separation anxiety can be an issue around her age, but since she hasn't ever really had major issues sleeping I guess I feel like it has to be something more to wake her and put her in such a tizzy.  

Long story short, do you think I have made a mistake rocking her to sleep for this long, making her too dependent on me to fall asleep herself?  We didn't have the same problem tonight, thank goodness, but I am still wondering if I need to change to Ferber before things get worse?

CurlyQ284

I am in the same boat! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread but I'm so tired.

genmccarley

My son does this when he rolls to his belly sometimes too. It's calmed down now since he can crawl but when he was learning it was outrageous and would happen literally every time he laid flat. I think it just had to do with him working on that milestone. Most of the time now he rolls all over and is fine and that was just a little phase.

vettymama

When my DS turned 8 months the same thing happened. Good luck. Hope the phase doesn't last too long.

beccalee721

We have never rocked LO to sleep (just a personal preference) but she has started immediately sitting up and crying when we put her to bed. She has a very consistent bedtime routine and some nights even when she's falling asleep with us on the couch she still randomly rolls over and sits up to cry for a bit. It happens more during nap time. But after a bit she just lays down and falls asleep. Hopefully since it didn't happen two nights in a row it was just a fluke, but I would recommend starting to phase out the rocking slowly and start putting LO down more and more awake until she doesn't need to be rocked anymore. GL!

kerbear135

DD's been having the same issue, and we don't rock her to sleep. We've put her down drowsy but awake since she would allow it, but the last couple of nights, one of us had to go back in there just a few mins after we put her down. Don't know if this will help, but our rule is that we don't pick her back up- we will pat her back, shush her, give her paci, etc but we don't pick her back up...this morning she did it at 5 am (we get her up at 6:30 on weekdays) but soothed herself back to sleep

She's done it for naps occasionally too...so maybe it's just something kids their age go through...

jobiann

We stopped rocking DS to sleep when he was 5 months old....not on purpose really, he had been through his bedtime routine and still was ready to party even though I could tell he was tired (eye rubbing, head going down every few minutes) so one night I just put him in bed and 5 minutes later he was out. So now 80% of the time he goes to bed drowsy and falls asleep within 5 to 10 minutes and the other he falls asleep to his bedtime bottle and I just put him in bed. 

I don't think you've made a mistake but it might be easier to work on the going to bed drowsy now then in a few months.  

*LrCg*

I'm a mom of 3 and I always rocked my kids to sleep for both naps and bedtime.  They were & are great sleepers.  When they were older (about 10 months old-1 year) I would rock them for 3 songs then lay them down and they were out before I got to the bottom of the stairs.  My oldest is 4 and I can assure he doesn't require me to rock him to sleep.  Its possible that the other night your LO just needed you or perhaps it was a bit of anxiety- they're minds are going crazy right now.  If it was me, I would continue to rock.  Eventually wether its when they are 8 months old, 10 months old, etc. they learn to do it on their own.  Just enjoy it now because soon they won't want those extra snuggles.  

tortuga47

I think it's just her age, and I don't think you made a mistake. Kids need extra snuggle time sometimes, especially when they are hitting major milestones like that.