How to wean from rocking?

Twins are 14 months old and DS goes down awesome. DD is the problem. She used to sleep 12 hrs straight through, with minimal bedtime routine and fast asleep in minutes when put in crib. For 4 months now, she has been sleeping in our bed. For MUCH longer, she has required rocking for each nap and at bedtime. I love rocking her, because it's a special bonding time for us. I love sleeping with her also, but both are getting to be a problem. We can't travel because there is no rocking chair at grandma and grandpa's (hotels, vacation spots, etc.) so naps are crap naps in the stroller. She has begun to get terribly restless as night and wakes up up constantly from 3am onward. I basically get no sleep from about 3 or 4 am each day. I am a workiing mom, so the nanny can rock her during the day but when I travel out of town, DH basically waits for her to konk out in the jumperoo because he can't get her to sleep by rocking. This keeps her up till 10pm sometimes. It's awful. Her naps suck - usually they go from about 30min - sometimes 90 minutes. More often than not, they are on the short side of 40 minutes.

We've tried CIO and she works herself up into an absolute frenzy. SHe vomits all over herself and won't stop crying. It's horrible. I can't take it. Once, she cried for 4 hours one night, with 15min breaks where she fell asleep sitting upright. I just don't think the CIO method works for her. It worked for my son, but it's too traumatic for my daughter.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am considering an inflatable mattress on the floor of our room now. Maybe it's time to transition her to a toddler bed.

PS - I don't listen to people's assvice about not letting your kid sleep with you and not rocking a 14-mo old to sleep. I actually don't mind it at all. However, when we travel, the rocking is a huge issue and her sleeping with us prevents DH and I from having a good night's sleep or sex. ever.

thanks

 

We had to transition our DD out of rocking, but she required to be walked and rocked so it was getting too much on DH's back. What helped was changing up the bedtime routine a bit with her. At the time, we had read stories downstairs in the living room together and when we had to stop rocking/walking her, we would read to both of them in her room. DS then would go to bed and she would get one more book and then it was time for her to go to bed. We were consistent and gave her a run down of the new routine. She did not like it at first, but after a couple of weeks it was much easier to put her down for both nap and bedtime.

 

I bounce my twins to sleep. And I do take my exercise (bouncing ball) with me wherever I go. It is much easier than transporting a rocking chair. I do agree that if your daughter is vomiting during CIO it probably is just too traumatic for her and that really isn't good to let her do that. Maybe you can try bouncing her and she may get used to that other than rocking. I am not sure what your co-sleeping problem is (you mentioned both were becoming an issue) We co-sleep with DS. My DD seems to want her own space and never cared for co-sleeping. We moved one crib into our room next to our bed and put our DS down in the crib first and when he wakes at night for feeding I move him into bed with us. That seems to work better for us than all night co-sleeping.

 

I too had a anticio child( and got flack for it). Have you tried laying down with her next to you and rocking your body back and forth? Another option is slowing the rock down gradually till you are no longer moving or start patting while rocking then slowly take out the rocking.

 

I think others have offered great ideas - I would also recommend checking out Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution. I really love her books because she offers tons of different ideas & suggestions to help you tailor a sleep plan to your family's specific needs, situation & parenting style. I've used her books for sleep issues all along & even used her potty training book as well.