Rocking to sleep needs to stop.

[Ann1991]

My little boy is almost 8 months old, never been a great sleeper. We've gone from 6-8 wake ups a night to 2-3 since he'sgone into his own room. However getting back to sleep is getting harder.

He falls asleep on the bottle during the night, I'll gently rock him for about 5 minutes until I can hear his breathing has changed but as soon as I remove my hand from under his head he wakes up and immediately starts crying. I will then have to rock him back to sleep, attempt the transfer and after several goes he'll stay a sleep but this can take well over an hour sometimes. I'm actually getting less sleep with fewer wake ups.

How on earth do I get him to stop needing the rocking to fall asleep? If I just place him in his cot when he's awake he just screams.

I tried the horrid CIO one night and after an hour of screaming he threw up. I will never do it again, I still haven't forgiven myself for it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It doesn't need to be full rocking to sleep or full CIO. I would try moving from rocking to a comforting in the cot technique like sshhh/patting. You might have to give another cuddle if baby gets really hysterically upset but would want to move to not picking them up again when you can. then when they are going to sleep with sshhh/patting in the cot, try leaving putting them down awake and leaving for a minute or two. if upset go back in and reassure with shh/pats without picking them up. then try and leave the intervals for longer. Bascially Ferber method, not full CIO. Then once they can fall asleep independently i always remind myself, if baby isn't upset and crying, they don't need me and they should settle down and sleep. also try and stop falling asleep on the bottle as this is a sleep association for baby so when they wake without it in the night they get distressed.

Sounds like baby is waking upset because they were happily asleep in your arms and then suddenly not. With support they can learn to fall asleep in their sleep space you just have to be consistent.

My DS just turned 1 and has been a great independent sleeper for months now. Sometimes he's up in the night unsettled with teething or illness and we still try and reassure/comfort with him in the cot and not picking up, as he just gets more upset being put down again.