Rocking a 17.5 month old to sleep

[cheekypossum]

It is getting harder and harder to get our DD to sleep, during the day and at night. We have always rocked her to sleep but lately it sometimes takes up up to 1.5hour to get her to sleep and it is just starting to feel too much.

We try and put her in her cot awake and she just screams and we really don't want to do the CC methods.

DH no longer get our nights to ourselves as we spend majority of it waiting for DH to go to sleep and then we are both so tired we just fall into bed.

Not sure what I am after....support? Advice? anyone else stories....thanks

[punkbaby]

what are her day sleeps like? is she sleeping too long during the day? I rocked my middle 2 to sleep and co slept till they were 3 :) mind you they slept at the same time every night

[hayleylea]

I rocked my DS to sleep till he was 1 and then one day he was taking forever to go to sleep so i put him in the cot and sat with him holding his hand till he fell asleep. Within a week he was going to sleep by himself in the cot without a fuss. I know you dont want to use the CC methods so maybe just try your own method. Put her in the cot and sit and talk to her/read to her/hold her hand and see how she goes. Or maybe even think about putting her in a bed and lying with her to get her to go asleep and gradually move away from that? I do remember how frustrating it was at times to get them to sleep and because you have to hold them it takes up alot of your time and energy so i really do feel for you!

Sorry im not much help - When you start something new just keep it exactly the same every night and she should get use to it. :fingerscrossed: Goodluck!

[MountainGirl]

Hi doll,... I still rock Jas to sleep,....and I rocked Squidg till she was 2!!! (I was 9months preg,...and there wasnt much room on that lap!!!),.... after Jasper was born, DH took over putting Squidg to bed,..he would read her stories, put her into bed and then just sit in the arm chair in her room till she dropped off,. in the beginning it took over an hour,..after a week it was down to 10mins,...... voila! I think we will do the same thing with J... he is too little to get it atm,..and I couldnt bear to hear him confused and crying,... good luck!

[nic28]

my DD is 17 months old and I have always breastfed her to sleep! We had tried on and off CC methods which sort of worked but I always caved in and went back to b/feeding her to sleep. I am slowly starting to wean her so i decided to try another way of getting her to sleep- and that is after she is fed and bathed, normally around 7pm I start telling her that it bed time in 20 mins...then 10 mins later I tell her it is bed time in 10mins go and get a book for mummy to read you, we read to her for 10 mins, with constant reminders that it is nearly bedtime. Then I tell her to kiss Daddy and say goodnight- she does all of this without fuss, when I am carrying her into bed she does normally have a bit of a cry and shakes her head but as soon as I have shut her bedroom door she has stopped crying....this has worked night and day now for about a month- and I can't beleive it works...I thought I would be b/feeding her to sleep when she was 18 HAHAHA....My point is though, they understand ALOT at that age........

[MountainGirl]

mmmmm,....maybe it is more to the point then that my DS understands too much!:laughing:

[mumma bear]

I would go straight to a bed and bypass the cot. My DD1 and DS both went into beds at 18m.

I know this is a little different but another perspective for you. My DS recently broke his arm, he would normally suck his fingers on the broken arm to put himself to sleep, now he can't. I was concerned about this and the nurse in the hospital said to me 'just think that you have thrown out the dummy, it will take him a while to find a new way of falling asleep, just help him in the meantime.'

So we are now 2.5 weeks on and DS isn't crying or calling for me to come back anymore and whilst he is taking sometime to fall asleep he happily lays in his bed until he does. I sat with him (he cried), i cuddled him, whatever he needed aslong as he knew i was there he was OK even though at times he was upset.

So if you think that your rocking is her dummy then just stop doing it and help her find another way of falling asleep.

The only other thing that i can suggest is do you think she is growing out of her day sleeps? My DD1 did at 18m. She would fight falling asleep for her day sleeps and then when she did sleep during the day was very hard to get to sleep at the end of the day.

[Pixie]

I have no idea I still let my DD comfort suck to sleep she will be 2 in April and I am 24 weeks preg I am so doomed!!

[cheekypossum]

I really hope she is not growing out of day sleeps :o :D

Thanks you for all your tips and especially reassurances. She normally has one day sleep from about 1ish to 3 - 3:30ish.

I have been slowly weaning her since she was 16 months and have probably in the last 3 weeks dropped her night feed and I suppose that has been one of the biggest hurdles. As now I do admit our biggest problem is having a "wind" down time. We do all the dimming of the lights, read a book etc etc, but this child just has too much energy and there is no way that we can just try and calm her down any way. So maybe if we could just settle her a little at night taht would help get her to sleep.

She still wakes at least once a night and sometimes that is a hassle in itself.

We are in the early stages of a 2nd pregnancy and I was hoping to get some kind of routine before bub no 2 arrives but I suppose I should just try and go with the flow and see how it goes.


Thanks again :hugs: