Transition confusion

jsaum · August 2014

Hi everyone. I have a 21 month old who only like to fall asleep nap and bedtime if I rock her. I have baby #2 arriving in march. Do you have any tips/suggestions/advice on how to get her to independently fall asleep on her own? I'm thinking a big girl bed may help (seeing how I'm gonna need the crib) I want to make sure she is well transitioned before other one gets here. And let's face it I'm gonna be too big too soon to rock her. Thank you for your help.

ashiscute · August 2014

I would suggest reading a couple books on sleep training and find one that you think will work for you. I really liked Ferber's Solve your Child's Sleep Problem. I personally would probably rock for a pre-determined amount of time (5 mins or so) and then lay her down, say good night and walk out.

Ferber's method is doing progressive checks so going back in and checking on her after 1 min, 3 mins, 5 mins until she is asleep. He gives advice on both doing it from a crib or a twin bed. There are more gentle approaches so find what works for you. good luck

BelhurstBride · August 2014

You could check out the No Cry Sleep Solution.

FWIW, I continued to rock DD1 to sleep throughout my pregnancy and beyond. Now she tells me my snuggles are too tight and DD2 has never been much of a snuggler. I'm glad I got all the snuggles I could get when I could get them!

maybebride · August 2014

DS still nurses/snuggles/rocks to sleep (we are currently without our rocking chair as we were in temporary housing for two months while we moved and we haven't gotten it to the house yet) at 21 months and I have no plans to stop anything except the nursing as I am due with baby #2 in early May/late April.

We are going to convert the crib to the toddler bed (as soon as the rail gets here) in the hopes that will make a smoother transition to lying down after falling asleep or being able to lie him down on his own.

I read the No Cry Sleep Solution when DS was 9 months and found it very helpful even if it didn't completely work (and that was more on me) for us. I'm not a believer in CIO, so that wasn't an option in our house. But, you have to do whatever is best for your family and LO.

ashiscute · August 2014

Nicb13 said:

ashiscute said:

I would suggest reading a couple books on sleep training and find one that you think will work for you. I really liked Ferber's Solve your Child's Sleep Problem. I personally would probably rock for a pre-determined amount of time (5 mins or so) and then lay her down, say good night and walk out.

Ferber's method is doing progressive checks so going back in and checking on her after 1 min, 3 mins, 5 mins until she is asleep. He gives advice on both doing it from a crib or a twin bed. There are more gentle approaches so find what works for you. good luck

I swear we are the same person sometimes when it comes to the advice we give
I agree with all of this. You really should read a book on what to do.
OP I'm due in a little over a month and up until we switched DS to a twin bed a few weeks ago, I still rocked him every single night and I have since he was born. Except, I rock for a short amount of time then would put him in his crib whether he was awake or not. Sometimes he pitched a fit but usually he was fine just going in.
Your LO will most likely be unhappy so that's when the "checks" come into play like PP mentioned above. Leave the room, even if she's upset, wait 5-10 minutes (how ever long you want), then come back in if she hasn't calmed down. You have to be 100% consistent every single night or your LO will be confused. You can't give in and fall back onto old habits.
I personally wouldn't move your LO to a bed until she gets good at going to sleep awake and without your assistance. You have plenty of time before the baby comes to transition her and this will take some work. Good luck!

I know I sort of feel embarrassed because you are responsible for like 80% of my love its. Maybe we should come up with some sort of manual for timeouts and sleep training.

ashiscute · August 2014

Nicb13 said:

ashiscute said:

I know I sort of feel embarrassed because you are responsible for like 80% of my love its. Maybe we should come up with some sort of manual for timeouts and sleep training.

We could write a book together! lol
I might need your help when this baby comes and I forget everything I think I know!

That will definitely happen. I could not believe everything I'd forgotten between DD and DS and they're only 19 mos apart!

Jbosarge85 · September 2014

Nicb13 said:

ashiscute said:

I would suggest reading a couple books on sleep training and find one that you think will work for you. I really liked Ferber's Solve your Child's Sleep Problem. I personally would probably rock for a pre-determined amount of time (5 mins or so) and then lay her down, say good night and walk out.

Ferber's method is doing progressive checks so going back in and checking on her after 1 min, 3 mins, 5 mins until she is asleep. He gives advice on both doing it from a crib or a twin bed. There are more gentle approaches so find what works for you. good luck

I swear we are the same person sometimes when it comes to the advice we give

I agree with all of this. You really should read a book on what to do.

OP I'm due in a little over a month and up until we switched DS to a twin bed a few weeks ago, I still rocked him every single night and I have since he was born. Except, I rock for a short amount of time then would put him in his crib whether he was awake or not. Sometimes he pitched a fit but usually he was fine just going in.

Your LO will most likely be unhappy so that's when the "checks" come into play like PP mentioned above. Leave the room, even if she's upset, wait 5-10 minutes (how ever long you want), then come back in if she hasn't calmed down. You have to be 100% consistent every single night or your LO will be confused. You can't give in and fall back onto old habits.

I personally wouldn't move your LO to a bed until she gets good at going to sleep awake and without your assistance. You have plenty of time before the baby comes to transition her and this will take some work. Good luck!

I disagree on the transitioning, I transitioned my lo to a toddler bed when she was 16 months old and I rocked her to sleep and still do, most nights she sleeps all night.

Edit; I'm not a fan of cry it out, my lo will cry till she throws up and then will cry more. It's not for everyone

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