Woo hoo! My toddler can self-settle despite always being cuddled to sleep :)

[DitaVonCheese]

Just posting in case it helps someone who is worried that they are "making a rod for their own back" (when I am king that phrase will be illegal).

DD is 22 months. Up until 14 months she was bfed to sleep, when it suddenly stopped working (which was a bit annoying, despite me worrying before that that I would have to do it forever) so then I would give her a feed then DH would go in and cuddle her until she fell asleep. This was taking an hour or more most of the time so a week or so ago we started just leaving her and - unbelievably - she just chats to herself for a bit then goes to sleep We co-sleep so she sleeps on our bed until we go up, so we've never tried it before as I assumed she'd just get out of bed but she doesn't. Amazing.

If 22 months of parenting have taught me anything, it's that it's all just a phase so it could all still go tits up. I also know all children are different and the plural of anecdote isn't data ... but certainly for us, cuddling DD to sleep for all of her life hasn't rendered her incapable of falling asleep by herself. Hope that someone finds it reassuring!

Same with us, DS is 2yo and was always cuddled/fed/rocked/sung to sleep until a few weeks ago. We just kept trying every so often to leave him in his cot awake. Most times he screamed so we'd go straight back and do the usual rocking etc. All of a sudden, he just started going to sleep instead. No rods over here either!

Another rodless house

DD 2.5 has just settled by herself on only her 3rd night in her "big girl bed" after varying stages over approx 2yrs of breastfeeding to sleep, cuddling, co-sleeping etc etc - basically all types of extreme rod making behaviour. It just all clicked into place shortly before she was 2 and she now snoozes the night away perfectly.

Of course it can and probably will go tits up, but it's great at the moment, despite all the rods!!

Yay - glad to hear that this isn't just a one-off

Caz we're planning a move to big girl bed in the next month or so, so it's good to know that can go smoothly as well

my DS is 22m and has just started sleeping all night with all rods in place!

so glad we did it this way.

note- metaphorical back rods, have not actually placed rods on child

Kate

This happened to us as well. Breastfed to sleep until it stopped working at 12 months - switched to bottle, rocked/cuddled until out, then transferred asleep until 15 months. At 15 months my husband thought to ask her one day, do you want to go into your cot? And she nodded, and so he put her in the cot, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I might have missed the boat on this post, in which case I will start a new thread, BUT... I am 'making the rod- blah blah' by breastfeeding DD to sleep each night.

It works fine, but everyone is tutting me when I admit to doing it...I might be able to ignore that, but now DD is 6 months old, I am daring to think that it might be nice to go our in the evening, just once...

Thing is, I can't go out if I have to be home to feed her to sleep. WHat did you all do? Stay home for the first year?

I like this thread...it give hope...!!

Bionic I more or less stayed home or tried to make sure she was asleep before we went out but you may well find that she settles perfectly well for someone else: DD (generally) does down like a dream for my mum (though we do sometimes come up to a still awake and completely manic baby!).

Immaculada Good, that was the idea

BionicB - erm yes

Had no money or energy anyway so wasn't a massive issue! But I had to miss bedtime for the 1st time to do parents night (oh the glamour) and despite all my worries DD settled fine for DH with a bottle of milk (she was having bottles in the day then because I was back at work).

Oh, thanks! I'm now breast feeding my 13 month old to sleep & I'm very hungry... I asked my DH to try to settle him down, but didn't work (they played peekaboo!).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! I'm just hungry
It's good to know there are other parents like us!

Thankyou thankyou thankyou!!! I am new to mumsnet and this is EXACTLY what I was hoping to find.

Cannot explain how reassuring reading this thread has been for me; can't wait to share with DH when he gets home!

As youngest sibling and last to have babies been feeling tad insecure about our 5 month old's night-time routine or lack thereof compared with my well-trained/self-settling nieces & nephews.

This has given me hope and put a big grin on my face!!

Thanks Caz10 and Dita - no need for ! No judgement implied about staying home - I was just curious about what other people did.
I think I just need to get DD used to accepting a bottle again (she decided only to accept it from me, which made expressing etc seem like a waste of time) if I want to venture out....

Rodless househouse here too. Fed DD to sleep up until she was 9 months old, (I had to give up breasfeeding due to illness on holiday and supply never really recovered) when she went onto formula I started cuddling/ rocking her to sleep. Then in the hot weather she started getting grizzly and fidgety so one night I kissed her head and popped her into her cot where she chatted to herself for a few minutes and then went off to sleep on her own. It has been over two weeks now and apart from the odd occasion where she has woken up an hour or so after going down (she then needs a cuddle for a bit) she has done this each night. I think she was getting to big to get comfortable in my arms and was just happier to be in her cot.

Thanks for this post! I am a frequent victim of 'rod for your own back' from MIL. At 19 months, my LO is still falling asleep at his bedtime BF (the only one he has now). Still works so I don't want to change it just yet.

Bionic...yeah i kinda stayed at home for the first year! BUT now I can go out and it's never an issue. My LO started staying at his nanas once a week when he was 13 months and will now quite happily stay over with either set of grandparents. Stopped night feeds at 18 months and I am now free to socialise again.

In fact, that;s not strictly true - we took LO along to a few nights out before he was 1 - weddings, BBQs, family parties, that kind of thing - and left him sleeping in his pushchair while we partied. Kind of!

Another rodless house here. Fed DD to sleep until that stopped working then used to cuddle etc, one night she waved bye-bye when I put her in her sleeping bag so I left her to it and she settled herself. She's now 19mo and sleeps all night in her big girl bed. Which is great as I now have DD2 to settle at night.

Bionic, my DD also stayed withgrandparents once a week from 13months and settled fine for them. Until then it was just me putting her to bed, but I could easily go out once she was settled.

Hi Greensnail - I remember you from BLW! How old is your youngest one now?

Hi Cara, she's 10 weeks now. Don't know where the time has gone to! Hope you and DS are well and still enjoying the food