When and how did you stop rocking to sleep?!

[ShutterHaze]

I have an 11 MO DD. We’ve been on a bit of a journey with her sleep, but it’s tolerable at the moment. We rock her to sleep (she falls asleep very easily in a couple of mins or so) and, on a good night, she wakes up once and is fed to sleep (breastfed). She was capable of self settling for around a month when she was around 6 months old but she stopped one day and we haven’t been able to get her to do it since! We considered sleep training when her sleep was really bad around a couple of months ago but it didn't feel like the right thing for DD. It’s naturally got better, although is by no means perfect.

Anyway, my question is - if you rocked your child to sleep and never sleep trained, how and when did they start self-settling?! I just don’t understand how children start settling by themselves, but I presume that it happens at some point?! 😅

I have no answers for you but I’m interested in following as I have a nearly 12 month old who only ever sleeps when breastfed and/or rocked. I don’t mind particularly, in fact I think it’s quite lovely! But I am intrigued as to when it will come to an end, as I presume I won’t be rocking a 13 year old!
Everything I’ve read seems to suggest some babies do it early, some it takes much longer. A lot says things really change after a year so let’s see!

Tbh mine is now 2.5 and we still sometimes rock her to sleep! It's slowly being replaced by putting her down and telling her stories/rubbing her back until she has dozed off or is 80-90% asleep. This is not something we deliberately implemented, it just started happening naturally which it will for everyone, I can't think of any adults that are rocked to sleep!

The rocking is now mainly for naps but I reckon she will drop them pretty soon anyway. At nursery apparently she just lays down and falls asleep easily so the rocking is probably just a familiarity thing. I've loved it and will miss it when it totally stops.

Oh and we did do some form of sleep training for a short while when she was much younger, but it wasn't with the aim to get her to sleep without rocking, it was to help overcome the wakeups every 45 minutes every night.

@Brightandbreezey We’re approaching 12 months too and will be interested to see how things develop… I’m not looking to force
the issue but, as you say, don’t expect to keep doing it forever 😅

@Yuckyyuckyuckity That’s really helpful - thank you! I imagined a 2.5 year old would be too heavy to rock to sleep but I can definitely see us doing the same in a year and a half 😅 It’s interesting that a baby/toddler might be able to self settle at nursery but not at home! My little one starts nursery in a few weeks so we’ll see what happens there…

Tbf she is pretty slight for her age, I can't imagine doing it with some of my friends kids the same age lol. And we have a rocking chair so I sit on it and put her on my shoulder then rock - definitely haven't rocked her horizontally like a baby for a long time!

Apparently it's quite common for kids to self settle easily at nursery- group mentality and all that, they just copy each other, so fingers crossed same happens for yours.

I have 17 mths between my kids and my #1 was rocked to sleep, every sleep day and night til I thought hmm better change this before #2 arrives and also it was becoming a bit tricky to get her in the cot still asleep with my big belly in the way!

I think she was about 15 mths when we started? We explained what was happening and still did the same routine with milk, teeth, books and songs cuddling in the chair in her room then we added in a new thing of her picking a special book to read in bed. She’d lie down and we’d read the book and then she’d insist on keeping the book with her in the cot (it would always be a big hard cover one of course). And she would just roll over and go to sleep. She’d always slept well through the night which is why we’d kept rocking as much as it was lovely and didn’t impact her sleep.

Ours was so similar! Even down to the self settling at 6 months for a short while, then never again. She had to be rocked or breastfed to sleep. Her sleep changed a lot at about 14 months, when she slept through more, but then at about 17 months, she started not going to sleep by either rocking or breastfeeding, which was a bit of a pain! She would just mess around in our arms for hours all evening. It wasn't good for her, or us. So we did a short sharp stint of sleep training at about 18 months, where we put her down despite her protests. It took about 2 and a half weeks, before she started to actually enjoy the new routine, and she now points to the cot as soon as story is done, and then stays lying down and puts herself to sleep within about ten minutes and no crying. I was really sceptical. And I found it very hard. But we're all so much happier now. Just to offer that perspective!