Community› The Bump Message Boards› Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Babies: 3 - 6 Months
New Discussion

Baby only wants to rock to sleep

hokiemel7hokiemel7 member
in Babies: 3 - 6 Months
So my dd won't fall asleep at night on her own. She will become drowsy while were walking around with her but the moment we lay her down (trying to get her to fall asleep without our help) she becomes wide awake and wants to roll around and play. We have the glowing (crack) seahorse and a mobile so it's not like there's a lot going on in there. Sometimes her "Mr. Cuddles" (those blankets with stuffed animal bear head) will make her relax, but not consistently enough. Any advice from guys on what we can do? I don't want her to become dependent on us to put her to sleep. Tia!
Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
Report Reply to Post

Re: Baby only wants to rock to sleep

  • BejebusBejebus

    Sounds like she already is dependent on you! Not meaning to be snarky, she sounds a lot like my DS who needed to nurse to sleep every time until we did sleep training (Ferber) at 5.5 months. The answer is sleep training, and the question I think you need to ask yourself is if what you are doing now (rocking) works for you. If it works, doesn't take forever, and you're both content with the situation, leave it be. If you think something needs to change, not because of a future fear but because it isn't working for you and DH, then start thinking about sleep training. I recommend Ferber's book, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, even if you aren't interested in his method- it has a TON of information on infant sleep that is great to know.

    With DS, he went from nursing to sleep in 20 minutes to the whole thing taking up to two hours. That's when we knew that it wasn't working for us anymore and we had to sleep train. I was hard for two nights, but teaching him to fall asleep on his own is one of the greatest gifts we have given him as parents. Good luck!

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • ilovechubbycheeksilovechubbycheeks
    I was kinda freaking out about putting LO down sorta awake so that he would learn how to fall asleep on his own when rocking him really wasn't a problem for us - everybody just kept telling us we needed to do it - and I found that the process was more unpleasant than the one minute it took to rock him to sleep.  Once we went back to the rocking routine, he was totally OK and so were we.  It works for us so I'm not going to stress about it anymore.  If it had been tougher than it is I might have considered something like sleep training.  I hope it gets better for you soon.  Do whatever works for you and your baby.  Good luck!
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    Report Reply
  • monlyn9monlyn9 member
    DS went through a period where putting him down drowsy wasn't working like it had before. I started keeping my arms under him when I first put him down. I would lean over and keep my arms where they were when I was holding him so that he still felt that security and then I would slowly remove my arms as he settled in. After a couple of weeks I was able to speed up the process of how long I kept my arms there until I didn't need to do it at all.
      
    Report Reply
  • Christian&HeatherChristian&Heather
    Read the Ferber book.  Sleep training is a wonderful thing. We're on day 4 of our sleep training experience and it's going well. I was skeptical, bbut it actually is working. I understand your fear in creating dependance on you, and Ferber will help foster independance that will benefit your child for a lifetime. I recommend you read the entire book, because the information in there is very beneficial.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • ekc29ekc29 member
    I am currently reading No Cry Nap Solution and No Cry Sleep Solution. There are tips and suggestions to try for transitioning from rocking/holding to putting down and helping your LO learn to fall asleep on their own. I am very guilty of rocking to sleep and holding her for naps! It works for me now, but i don't want to do it forever. My DH is completely against CIO and I'm not exactly for it either, so I was looking for other options first. It's worth a read, IMO!
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • carinamarie77carinamarie77 member
    imageBejebus:

    Sounds like she already is dependent on you! Not meaning to be snarky, she sounds a lot like my DS who needed to nurse to sleep every time until we did sleep training (Ferber) at 5.5 months. The answer is sleep training, and the question I think you need to ask yourself is if what you are doing now (rocking) works for you. If it works, doesn't take forever, and you're both content with the situation, leave it be. If you think something needs to change, not because of a future fear but because it isn't working for you and DH, then start thinking about sleep training. I recommend Ferber's book, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, even if you aren't interested in his method- it has a TON of information on infant sleep that is great to know.

    With DS, he went from nursing to sleep in 20 minutes to the whole thing taking up to two hours. That's when we knew that it wasn't working for us anymore and we had to sleep train. I was hard for two nights, but teaching him to fall asleep on his own is one of the greatest gifts we have given him as parents. Good luck!

    All of this. Also, Mindell's "Sleeping Through the Night" is good, too. I used to spend upwards of 4 hours putting him to bed at night and naps were the worst until we sleep trained. (Bedtimes are still a struggle for some reason, but we're still working on it and I totally recommend Ferber.) 

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Photobucket
    Report Reply
  • KCKappaKCKappa member
    Ditto PPs who have said there is NOTHING wrong with rocking your baby to sleep if it's working for you. Does she sleep well at night? All the fuss about putting your baby down "drowsy but awake" is meant to help them learn to go back to sleep on their own if they're constantly waking during the night and needing you to rock them back to sleep every time. If you don't have that problem, and it doesn't take longer than you're willing to put up with to rock her to sleep, then there's no reason to stop.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • Scout05Scout05 member

    imageKCKappa:
    Ditto PPs who have said there is NOTHING wrong with rocking your baby to sleep if it's working for you. Does she sleep well at night? All the fuss about putting your baby down "drowsy but awake" is meant to help them learn to go back to sleep on their own if they're constantly waking during the night and needing you to rock them back to sleep every time. If you don't have that problem, and it doesn't take longer than you're willing to put up with to rock her to sleep, then there's no reason to stop.

    I personally tend towards this mindset. She's going to be small and willing to let me cuddle/rock her for such a short, precious amount of time. Even on those nights where I just want her to go. the. eff. to. sleep. it occurs to me that one day - far too soon - I won't get to just hold my baby and rock her to sleep. And it's going to just break my heart.

    If you want to break the habit, you got a lot of good advice in this post. But don't feel like you HAVE  to stop rocking LO if you don't really want to. 

    DD STTN, or with one waking, and has for some time. For her one waking, she takes a quick bottle and goes back down without much issue, and without me having to soothe her there. For us, putting down drowsy doesn't hold much appeal as she is doing fine with the current system.

    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"