Just had a breakthrough, will our holiday ruin this?? Help!

[waffles1]

Our ds is nearly 1 and has always been rocked to sleep. This was something dh and i were keen to stop as a) he's getting to heavy!! and b) we want him to be able to self settle. However, the past 2 days, he has refused to be rocked and pushes away from us and wriggles in our arms, we discovered it's because he now likes to sleep on his front, so we just now put him straight into his cot for nap time and bedtime and and after some protest crying he has fallen asleep!

Yesterday's nap there was 10 mins of crying, bedtime last night was 10 mins but today's nap was only 3 mins! Although i hate to hear him cry i feel pleased that he is learning to self settle and am hoping the crying will eventually stop. Plus it's more moaning then proper crying.

My questions are...has anybody else's ds/dd done this and have they eventually gone down to sleep without tears?

But my main concern is that we are going on holiday tomorrow for a week, do we continue with the putting straight in a cot as i worry the new environment will be frightening for him but equally don't want to resort to rocking again when i feel we have had a breakthrough!! Also we've been lucky in that the crying has only been for 10 mins max and only really moany crying, how long would you leave before going back into the room? Didn't really ever want to do this but does seem to work so all a bit new to me!

Sorry for the long post, and hope it makes sense. Thanks for reading! :-)

Sounds like you're doing the right thing and there's no real reason why a holiday bedroom should be frightening for him. You'll be there & presumably you'll take some of his cuddly toys along so he's got continuity. 'Moany crying' sounds fine. Babies can only make a small selection of sounds and two or three minutes of grizzly noises are not a sign of real discomfort or distress, just tiredness.

Thanks for the reassurance Cogito. I've packed his cuddly toys and favourite bunny! Plus will take a cot sheet from home so should smell familiar.
You're right that the crying does just sound like his tired cry/moan so i will keep doing what we're doing as my instincts do tell me that it's right.

You may well find that the change of scene of your holiday, spending more time outside (?), stimulating things for him to look at, slight change in routine etc. means he's a bit more knocked out in general. Your instincts sound spot on to me.

I would put him in his cot as you are doing at home but stay in the room/pat his back if he is upset. I'm not sure rubbing his back would work with a travel cot though, they are so low... Just play it by ear, he might be happy to settle himself, and if he isn't, as long as you are there for him it's fine, he won't feel alone. I am a worrier and have been worried before every holiday (DS is now 14 months), but he always surprised me and adapted much better than I thought he would. Also, he was back to normal very quickly after we got home, probably 1 or 2 days.

I would spend some time prior to bed time in the bedroom and baby in the cot just so he knows that this is where he willbe alleging for the next few days. Show him how his teddys are happy in there and are sleeping.