3m old requires rocking to sleep... advice needed

[Italianshark]

Hi all

So my 3m old sleeps amazingly, through the night 8-7 with sometimes one wake around 4/5.

I know that's good going but I'm concerned that to get to sleep, even for naps, she needs me to rock or cuddle her.

I want to know when I should start making the change (I assume ASAP) and how some of you done it? I CANNOT imagine for the life of me putting her in her cot and her dozing off on her own lol. And I can't do that forever!

New mum so no preferences or any idea either 😘

Thank you

I remember thinking there’s no way my little girl will go asleep without a dummy and without being rocked, now at six and a half months we lay her down awake, no dummy and she falls asleep by herself every time. We started trying at 4 and a half months when I couldn’t cope with the dummy any longer. She picked it up quite quickly, probably won’t be as bad as you think it will be. Lots of patting and ssshhhing to start off with!

My little boy is 10 weeks after he has a good feed (EFB) I wait until he's very sleepy and starting to nod off then I put him down and he gets him self off pretty quickly

I was in the same boat as you for at least the first 7 weeks and I'd had enough of having it bounce and rock him to sleep mainly because my back was in bits from doing it so I thought I'd try it one night and it worked I was very shocked but can't hurt to try?

Sometimes he does have a dummy when he's nodding off but he tends to spit it out when he's completely gone and he's happy and if I put him down when he's very sleepy I take it out and he's fine??

I know every baby is different so I hope it helps

Why does it need to change? I get that you can’t rock her to sleep but you can still cuddle her.

DD moved into her own bed before two and now at nearly three we still lay next to her for her to go to sleep. We are thinking about changing it now as she will have a sibling in the August but if we weren’t having another one we would just keep laying next for her for all of the 10 mins it takes her to go to sleep.

Sorry I read that as 3 years because of the way she sleeps! She is only a tiny baby and cuddles are good for development. If your happy then keep cuddling her!

My 5 month old needs feeding (either bottle or breast) to sleep unless he's in a pram or car. I just go with it. My 10 yr old is too cool for snuggles apparently so I'm holding on to this one 😂.
Wait till their older before sleep training, 3 months is still so tiny x

Possibly unhelpful but I would keep rocking! In fact I did, until about 6 months in I started finding it tough on the back to rock to sleep, so I started trying to fix things verrrrry gradually.

First step
All naps and night sleep in own room in cot. So would rock to sleep then put in cot to get DD used to waking up there and it being a safe place, specifically for sleep

Kept going like this, she would either feed or rock to sleep and be put in cot asleep. Then a few months later switched to putting her down very drowsy (on the edge of sleep)

Next step
Took ages.... she was almost 12 months old when we absolutely had to stop the rocking / bouncing to sleep. It wasn’t working for any of us anymore. We did the “disappearing chair” or gradual retreat method and it worked a treat.

I could never ever have imagined that DD would ever be put down in her cot fully awake, give me a kiss and cuddle and wave me off then go to sleep of her own accord, but she does. It took a while and a lot of perseverance and support from us, but she got there and is super happy to go to sleep on her own. She’s 21 months now BTW but has been like this since about 13 months .

Don’t worry OP. Just take tiny tiny steps over months and months and your baby will get there. For now I would keep rocking and cuddling if that’s what she needs.

Please just keep rocking her to sleep. It's totally normal and what some babies want and need at this very young age.

I started rocking my daughter to sleep - she's now almost two and still like to be rocked and cuddled to sleep. I love the bond it creates between us depends how long you want to keep doing it for I guess

Just keep rocking her. She’s still tiny. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with rocking and cuddling your baby to sleep. Ta not forever, you definitely won’t be rocking her to sleep at 18

My six month twins are fed to sleep and my little girl frequently needs rocking if she wakes up. It is total normal behaviour. Just do what makes you both happy and cuddle your baby!

Just keep rocking her. There’s no need to do anything else.

Sounds lovely, I remember my babies all warm and snuggly snoozing in my arms. That baby smell was lovely

Now they are 17, 13 7&8 and those days seem a lifetime ago, enjoy it as one day you’ll wish you rocked her longer....

As others have said, majority do grow out of it on their own. If you wanted to wean her off it gradually, this is what I have done with mine:
When rocking, I would also pat him so he learns to associate the patting with sleep.
Gradually reduce the amount of rocking but continue patting
Start putting him down and patting him to sleep
Gradually reduce the patting
He is 4 months and falls asleep on his own when I put him down. He has not cried at all for us to get to this stage so it can be done if you want it to.

I have a toddler so I can't hold him for all naps but I do take advantage of lying with him when she isn't around :)

I've recently stopped rocking my 5 month old to sleep (and holding him for naps) as he's just too heavy and big for me to continue. I'm a bit sad about it to be honest, as he had such lovely long naps when being held, now we get 40 mins at the most and once he's awake it's impossible to get him back to sleep. Also means less Netflix time for me!! So as long as you can physically do it, I would continue rocking and holding, then as PP says you could gradually get her used to sleeping in her cot by rocking, then putting down when drowsy.