rocking to sleep

It seems like every book has a different recommendation about whether to rock your baby to sleep or not. We have been doing everything known to man to get our babies to fall asleep for that first sleep session of the night. Daytime sleep seems to happen more naturally for some reason, or maybe I just don't care as much when exactly they fall asleep in the daytime. It often takes 1-2 hours after the last feeding (which is around 7ish but varies) to get them to sleep. Last night Charlotte was up until 10:15! DH and I each rock one, or walk around the house with one, til they seem 'out.' I think we do this because they get so wound up crying when they're put in their cribs if they're not asleep. I don't want to be starting any bad habits, but I know they're too little to just let them cry too. They wake again around 1 and 4 or 5 and usually are more sleepy then, but sometimes one of them is again up for an hour so one of us is up soothing and rocking to sleep. What do you think??

 

I feed, swaddle, pat, and shhhh-I lay them down when their eyes are heavy and then stand there with a hand on them and continue shhhhing until they seem completely out. Sometimes they even just fall asleep eating. This seems to be working better then when I would rock my dd (3yo now)until she fell asleep and then as soon as I put her in her crib her eyes would pop open!
Like you said though-you have to do whatever it takes in the begining-

 

QUOTE(jenanne @ Apr 8 2008, 03:14 PM) [snapback]711781[/snapback]
It seems like every book has a different recommendation about whether to rock your baby to sleep or not. We have been doing everything known to man to get our babies to fall asleep for that first sleep session of the night. Daytime sleep seems to happen more naturally for some reason, or maybe I just don't care as much when exactly they fall asleep in the daytime. It often takes 1-2 hours after the last feeding (which is around 7ish but varies) to get them to sleep. Last night Charlotte was up until 10:15! DH and I each rock one, or walk around the house with one, til they seem 'out.' I think we do this because they get so wound up crying when they're put in their cribs if they're not asleep. I don't want to be starting any bad habits, but I know they're too little to just let them cry too. They wake again around 1 and 4 or 5 and usually are more sleepy then, but sometimes one of them is again up for an hour so one of us is up soothing and rocking to sleep. What do you think??


Mine go right down at night - no crying, no rocking, no fuss. Same after every feeding. I honestly couldn't tell you if it is something we did or if it is just them. We have always not held them all the time so they don't get used to it, and we have always put them down awake and let them fall asleep on their own. When we did have a hard time getting them down, we would just keep trying to calm them down and put them back in their bed. We also let them sleep in their swing. Basically, I would try once or twice to calm them and put them back down awake. If it didn't work after a couple times, they would sleep in the swing until next feeding and then we'd try again. They just naturally started going right to sleep all the time around 5 weeks. But I have no idea if it's because I accidentally did something right or because they would have anyway.

I would say that I would probably let them CIO for at least 5 minutes or so at this age. Not full blown CIO, but let them cry for 5-10 minutes to see if they go to sleep. Sorry, I'm no help at all - I'm completely new at this too!

 

At that age, I rocked, rocked, rocked, and then rocked some more. I think when they are that young, you do what you have to! Around five/six months is when I started "teaching" my dd to fall asleep by herself. I never had to do full out CIO, she mainly fussed. But if I would have tried that young, I don't think it would have been pretty.

 

I rocked my older son to sleep and boy did I learn from that mistake! I would rock and rock and rock until he fell asleep and as pp said, as soon as we laid him down, the eyes would pop open and he'd start crying. There were nights that I would rock for 3+ hours! With the girls I rock them enough to calm them down but not asleep. When their eyes start getting heavy, I go lay them down and they go to sleep on their own. Of course, you do whatever works for you and your babies. My girls slept in their swings for about 3 weeks because that is the only place I could get them to sleep for more than an hour! Good luck!

 

I rock them if they don't fall asleep on their own and complain. My lil one will make these really angry sounding cries if she does not sleep on her own. I will take her out and either rock her to sleep or just carry her around with me until she sleeps. She seems to like being held to sleep whereas her sister doesn't have such a strong preference.

 

Maybe I will try putting them down when they're sleepy looking and relaxed. The problem is that sometimes their eyes are so wide open or they are fussing even if we are holding them and they have been up for 1-2 hours, probably overtired. I think the reason we often wait til they're sleeping is that when they cry in their crib they get so worked up and it becomes harder to get them back down. But ultimately of course I want for them to be able to self-soothe. BTW they are 8 weeks, the ticker is sort of funny saying 1 month 4 weeks which looks like 1 month 4 days

 

Do what you have to to survive. You are not setting any bad habits. My DS took ALL his naps in his carseat until he was 5 months old. Now he falls right asleep in his crib.

 

My mom gave me the best advice when I was stressing out about what I "should" do according to all the books/authorities on the subject. "They are your babies, and you put them to sleep however you want". Well, I love the snuggle! I love to see them sucking on the paci as they drift off. I love to feel them relax in my arms, and I love to hear their sweet breathing as they sleep. Soooo, I rock one to sleep in the morning, while the other gets to practice putting herself to sleep. In the afternoon, the other gets the snuggle and her sister practices putting herself to sleep. If I come out from rocking one and the other is still kicking around the pnp, I rock her until she is asleep. At night, they get a 3 minute snuggle, and are put to bed awake. Sometimes, very awake. So far, its worked.

 

QUOTE(kendall22 @ Apr 8 2008, 03:28 PM) [snapback]711978[/snapback]
My mom gave me the best advice when I was stressing out about what I "should" do according to all the books/authorities on the subject. "They are your babies, and you put them to sleep however you want". Well, I love the snuggle! I love to see them sucking on the paci as they drift off. I love to feel them relax in my arms, and I love to hear their sweet breathing as they sleep. Soooo, I rock one to sleep in the morning, while the other gets to practice putting herself to sleep. In the afternoon, the other gets the snuggle and her sister practices putting herself to sleep. If I come out from rocking one and the other is still kicking around the pnp, I rock her until she is asleep. At night, they get a 3 minute snuggle, and are put to bed awake. Sometimes, very awake. So far, its worked.


This is how I feel too. Sometimes both my boys go right to sleep at night, but other times I have to rock one or both of them. It doesn't bother me though because it is individual time that I get with them.

 

I also rocked my girls at that age and you know what? i would do it again and again! You do what you have to do to survive and if rocking is it, go for it!

 

QUOTE(moontwins @ Apr 8 2008, 07:58 PM) [snapback]711903[/snapback]
Do what you have to to survive. You are not setting any bad habits. My DS took ALL his naps in his carseat until he was 5 months old. Now he falls right asleep in his crib.

Ditto this. We rocked our girls to sleep for the first 5 months. I stressed so much about bad habits, but it turned out not to matter a bit. We did do CIO at 5 months because the rocking was not working anymore, and have had good results. But I could never have put them down awake at 8 weeks. One of them might possibly have been able to fall asleep that way, but the other one was a real pistol and had to be sound asleep before we could put her down. If she wasn't, we wound up spending more time going back to her and soothing, as opposed to taking the time necessary to rock her to sleep.

Mine also slept in the bouncy seat or the swing until at least 3 months, but have been great crib sleepers since 4 months. No bad habits.

 

I remember those nights!! Rocking and pacing the halls till my arms felt like they were going to break!
The only thing I can suggest is maybe trying to get them down earlier, less awake time. And do you swaddle? I definitely think swaddling helps.

Good luck!

 

I wrote this when my ds was 4 months old and it sums it up for me.



So I will hold you for as long as I can.

Your breathing slows.
With every exhale I can smell your milky breath.
I watch your tight little fist slowly open,
As your bottom rests deeper into my forearm.
Firmly I hold you and begin to get up.
Your head turns.
Your body squirms.
Patting your back, I sink back down into the rocking chair.
Your head pushes against my cheek,
And your fuzzy hair tickles my nose.
I can hear you sucking your fingers.
The drool soaks into my shirt.
I pull the boppy in closer and let my eyelids fall.
I start to pray for you…
Somewhere between sleep and prayer,
I imagine the years passing.
You crawl off my lap to explore the exciting world around you.
Then, you are even bigger - too big to fit on my lap.
The sucking stops.
I open my eyes.
Soon enough you will be a man,
So I will hold you for as long as I can.

- MOM

I wrote this in an attempt to freeze a moment in time. A moment when I realized there was no other place I wanted to be than in that rocking chair… nothing more important to do than hold my son.

 

I rocked mine until totally relaxed and settled, but not asleep. I did this until about 4 months when they got too wiggly and would put them right down and they did fine.

 

Yep, just do what you gotta do! Worry about creating and breaking habits later. Just get through these first few months. We chose not to rock ours but they were pretty content to be fed, swaddled and put down.

 

Oh, Christy, that's beautiful! Thank you for sharing that. :wub:

ITA w/ pps - rock all you want. It's good for everyone.

 

At this young age, you are NOT creating bad habits. You do what you have to! Mine sound the same as yours! Their fussy period is in the evening!

 

There are no bad habits at that age. Do whatever you have to do to get them to sleep and for you to get some rest!

 

Do what works for now. Babies 4 months and younger don't have the ability to self-soothe just yet so my advice would be to do what you can to help them sleep. My twins are 7 1/2 mos. now and I can tell you that they sleep 11 hours at night, take 2 naps, go down without binkies, and go down with no problems. We certainly have the occasional cry from teething but we never had to CIO and we never did dreamfeeding. After 4 months is when to really stick to a sound routine and develop good sleeping habits. We used the Ferber method and it has worked wonders. Consistency after 4 months is key. Good luck!

 

Christy's writing brought a little tear to my eye.

We never rocked - we don't have a rocking chair. But we did do basically everything recommended in Happiest Baby on the Block - swaddling, swaying, shooshing, etc. We have tried also to follow HSHHC - put them down when sleepy, but awake. We try to watch for the sleepy signs, put them down when they are ready to go to sleep. I wonder if your babies maybe aren't ready for sleep yet at 7:00, and that's why it's taking until 10:00 to go down. At that age ours weren't going to bed early - the last feeding and actual 'bed time' wasn't until 10 or 11, anything before that was a nap.