How / when did you move from rocking to sleep to self-settling?
DD is rocked or fed to sleep for every sleep. 99% of the time, I'm fine with this. I love the cuddles and am unwilling to let her cry. But gradually she's growing out of feeding to sleep (just finishes her feed and grins up at me like 'what? am I supposed to have my eyes closed??!!') and my body is starting to give out from rocking her (I've got really nasty RSI in my wrists and neck and back pain).
I'm working on the assumption that I won't still be doing this when she's 5 but I'm not sure how or when to help her to make the change.
Anyone about with a rocked-to-sleep baby who now self settles?? When did he/she learn to get to sleep without help? How did you do it?
ok well ur probably not going to like me very much but Jamie just all of a sudden started whinging whn i was holding him its very rare for him to want me to rock him
have u tried patting her on the back or giving her a blanket or something to cuddle maybe staying with her till she falls asleep
Subscribing. My Bub sounds similar to yours, Im interested to what others have to say... Tonight I rocked her to sleep in the pram and then transferred her to her cot, not self settling by any means
J - very occasionally (like about 3 times in total) that has worked. (I did such a silly happy dance last time she did it!!!). Just sat by the cot and stroked her back and she eventually went to sleep. This was reassurance that she can do it... just most of the time doesn't want to or can't relax enough to get there. Usually if I put her in her cot she either just cries instantly, or crawls around, stands up... plays until she gets fed up and then cracks it.
sorry im not more help but Jamie is FF so he holds his own bottle and sometimes feeds to sleep but hardly ever he wont let me do anything anymore not even eat solids he's way 2 independant for my liking
I'm still rocking, but trying to change from feeding to sleep and that seems to be working. I put DD in a sleeping bag for every sleep ie nap & bedtime to curb the standing up stuff, doesn't always work, she's pretty clever at standing but it does help. Tonight I rocked but she really wanted me to put her in bed, the rocking was keeping her awake - so there's hope hey!? Maybe they just grow out of the rocking?
I'm subscribing too!! I want to hear success stories!!
DD is 12months old and still cuddled / rocked to sleep so that isn't your hope BUT DS was rocked to sleep until about 12months and then we transitioned to lying down with him instead. He is now 2.5yrs and takes about 15 minutes with us lying next to him to go to sleep.
I have absolutely nothing to offer on self settling - mine just don't do it, but there is a time when you don't have to rock / cuddle / feed to sleep. And 15 minutes of cuddles at the end of the day is nice for everyone
LOL my 3 year old DS technically still does not self-settle!
DS was always fed to sleep (or DH would sometimes rock him to sleep in our rocking chair - he was too heavy to rock standing up!)...until he was about 18 months and moved into a big boy's bed and I was pregnant with DD and bfing was so uncomfortable for me I had to wean. So it was quite a big change all at once but the excitement of the big boy's bed was a distraction from the absence of breastfeeding and he got used to it pretty quickly.
However it was DH who did bedtime for at least a month exclusively to start off with so DS automatically knew no breastfeed was coming.
DS has always had his Music for Dreaming CD played since he was a baby so that remained a constant in his bedtime routine. Even though it was a new bed and it was Daddy putting him to bed, not Mummy, he knew that the music meant sleep time.
So I would suggest introducing a new "constant" that means sleepy time before removing something else. Consistency, consistency, consistency is what worked for DS.
DH instituted cup of warm milk after bathtime in the loungeroom, then story time in bed (rather than before the breastfeed) and then lying down next to DS, quiet soothing words and maybe a bit of patting if he fussed a bit but otherwise staying with him till he fell asleep. Even better, the move to the big boy's bed also coincided with the very first time DS slept through the entire night without waking for a bf in his entire life!
So we segued into lying down beside him till he fell asleep and we actually still do this now. Including story time he is always asleep in 20 minutes and it is a lovely way to finish the day for him and both DH and I enjoy the cuddles and watching him fall asleep. However since DD was born DS will usually insist I take him to bed, not Daddy, so poor Daddy, who instituted the whole new bedtime routine, hardly ever gets to enjoy it now.
We were quite rigid really, it was the same thing every single night so DS cottoned on and knew exactly what was coming very quickly. The first couple of weeks were the trickiest in terms of getting him used to the new idea but there certainly wasn't a lot of distress, maybe a a bit of whinging because things were different but certainly no full blown crying - neither of us believe in leaving our kids to cry.
I hope some people get some ideas from this (rather than wanting to lie down and die at the thought of feeding off to sleep for 18 months LOL).
How / when did you move from rocking to sleep to self-settling?
but I'm not sure how or when to help her to make the change.
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not even eat solids he's way 2 independant for my liking
so that isn't your hope 
BUT DS was rocked to sleep until about 12months and then we transitioned to lying down with him instead. He is now 2.5yrs and takes about 15 minutes with us lying next to him to go to sleep. 
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