Stopping rocking to sleep

[ecossegirl91]

Baby is 5.5m and still on our room. Always been rocked / cuddled to sleep. Used to work well but now not so much. Baby wakes on transfer or is waking hourly I assume because they can’t link sleep cycles because of being rocked and then no longer rocked?

I want to start putting baby in crib awake. If I do this and baby isn’t fussy but is just chilling / thumping legs / staring at their hands 😂 then I can leave them to do their thing and hope they fall asleep? If baby starts to fuss or get upset then re settle / soothe and leave once settled? Or do I watch them the whole time till they fall asleep?

what do others do? Sorry if this is a daft question!

I literally used to place DD in her cot at bed time and let her entertain herself until she fell sleep. I wouldn't stay in the room with her, I'd go and lay on my bed and chill or do the laundry etc.

If she woke in the night, I wouldn't pick her up but I'd tap and rub her bum and whisper ssh until she fell back off.

No advice on putting baby down awake as I've never done this / never needed to, but wanted to add that my baby is rocked to sleep and only wakes when I place him in his cot if he isn't tired enough to go to bed yet if that makes sense. May want to look at babys total naps during day as they may possibly be getting too much sleep in total over a 24h period. Friend of mine got her baby to fall asleep themselves in cot by gradually weaning off the rocking/cuddles apparently but this never worked for me

Thanks both. He doesn’t fuss when he’s put down so may just leave him and see how he goes and only tend to him when he starts to get fussy and unsettled.

he probably gets about 3 sometimes 4 hours of day time sleep so I think that’s about right?

I did a gradual end to the rocking over about a week where every day DD was rocked for a little less and then if she woke when putting her in the cot I’d rub her tummy to settle her While shushing her then slowly stopped that and just did thr shushing while retreating out of the room very quietly.
If you stay in there while they’re awake I find they want to interact so it’s better to see if they’ll fall asleep without you there

I'd start patting & "shhhing" whilst rocking to get him used to the pat feeling. Will be familiar with it after a couple of days if you do every sleep / nap from now. Then I'd try and use pat & shhh to re-settle him when he wakes instead of picking up and rocking.

Fine to put down and self entertain until he falls asleep on his own and by him learning to do that will help him link sleep cycles too. I'd only go and assist if he started to fuss or get distressed.

If it doesn't work, start practicing putting him down drowsy with pat and shhh until he gets the idea.

I am in the exact same boat OP except my baby is a little younger (just turning 5 months).

My DD has been unable to link sleep cycles at all and so for the past 2 weeks has woken every 30 to 45 minutes unless held 🙃. My husband and I are completely exhausted. Just started trying the 'putting down awake'. Last night it didn't go too badly but I had to leave the room as she got too excited whilst I was there. She did settle without crying for the night, and then slept until midnight (her longest stretch in 2 weeks). I am anxious for tonight. I think whats hard is seeing her awake in the middle of the night (but not crying) and not knowing whether to help her back to sleep or not. I waited 20 mins then ended up helping her even though she wasn't crying, because she didn't seem to be having any luck getting herself back to sleep.

@Purple89 yea this is my feeling with the night wakes too. He wakes in the night and isn’t distressed or fussy at all - he’s just playing with his hands, thumping his legs or stroking his sleeping bag 😂

Good to know I'm not alone! Let me know how you get on tonight.

I'm sure someone wise will come along to advise us on these night wakes. My instinct is that we should probably leave them be unless crying, so they learn to get themselves back to sleep. I fear a very overtired baby the next day though!

I’m not wise lol but my son did this for about 6 months from the age of 5 months to about 1, then slept through and then from the age of 18 months till he dropped his nap at gone 3. He’d wake anywhere from an hour to 3 hours in the night, just lying there loving life. Most of the time we didn’t even wake up but we had a CCTV camera in his room rather than a monitor so you could check movement in the morning.

I used to think it was strange and once asked his paediatrician about it (he had one for other reasons as he was premature) and she said that it is the actual dream to have a child that wakes up from sleep and is capable of putting themselves back to sleep, and is perfectly healthy. She said he’d probably sleep all the way through once he dropped his nap, which he did eventually and sleeps like a dream now all night. She said that it most likely means he’s comfortable in his sleep environment and knows if he needs us we will come.

So basically awake and happy = leave them be in my opinion.

I also put DS down awake from the age of 4 months, we did pick up and put down (so basically put down awake, leave, when baby cries go to them immediately, pick up and settle and reassure, put back down awake) worked in 2 nights and he’s ‘slept through’ (aside from his midnight cot parties) since.

This is really helpful advice and experience- thank you!

@Purple89 my first used to wake and scream the house down until he was 3. It was aweful, but suddenly he became the sweetest most awesome boy ever.
Basically trying to reassure that yes it is crap and there's no right way really when they're babies. But this stage is over so quickly and it's so worth it x