Babies who need rocking to sleep

DS1 was a co-sleeper and only needed to be laid with to fall asleep, DS2 is a much more unsettled baby among other things, but the only way i can get him to sleep is to literally wrap him up very tight, and rock him vigourously walking around the house. Even then sometims take half hour, to an hour. During the day he only cat naps, but at night has a 3 hour and a 5 hour stretch. SO i can deal with the catnapping in the day, but not the rocking. How much longer would this go on for? I don't believe in "self settling", i do think babies need some help feeling comforted and relaxing, but the rocking is just so tiring - nothing else works, not a hammock, swing, bouncer, pram, just arm rocking. Would he grow out of this?

I'm sorry i don't have an answer for you on this, but I am in the exact same boat! I am so over the rocking to sleep thing, DD is getting very heavy and can also take an hour to get to sleep, and that's for a nap, it takes up so much time and energy. Tonight she is still awake after two long hours of trying to get her to sleep. Rocking, walking, patting and feeding to sleep isn't working and she's so tired now. She's also a cat napper during the day, usually 40 mins to an hour.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Will they grow out of it or should we try to put a stop to it now?

i had a rocking chair that worked like a charm. I got it second hand off ebay and it was worth its weight in gold. Meant i could rock her without having to walk around carrying her.
Maybe that would work....

Olivia needed vigorous rocking for the first 4 months.......I used to put her in the Baby Bjorn and walk round the house and up and down the stairs whilst reading a book! Then, just when I was really getting sick of it, she, began to bounce herself in the hammock, and then she never needed rocking again.......

Not sure if that helps at all? Fingers crossed he growns out of it soon.......

Similar situation here...
We have tried to get more of a routine so that she is going down for sleeps at a similar time each day (also getting up in the morning at the same time) and there are cues that she gets before bed time at night to help her wind down.
Now we have dinner, play, bath, dress feed. then we move into her room where she is allowed to play on the floor while i read to her for 15-30 mins. then it is the last nappy change and into the sleep suit, i then tell her its bed time and we close the blinds, sort the bed out and i put her down. Usually i have to pick her straight back up, but it is getting better.
I also use a rocking chair and it is great, especially in the middle of the night.
Tonight i didnt rock her, just sung to her (the same song every night) and held her and she slowl went off.

Some babies only sleep one sleep cycle in the day MJ sometimes will sleep 20 mins for one of her naps and up to 2 hrs for other ones. trying to resettle doesnt work, in fact it usually makes it worse. I guess some babies dont need as much sleep during the day as others.

Not sure if this is at all helpful :)

This could be my story with Liam all over again, we went through the exact same thing. For me I eventually got so tired of having to rock him off so vigourously that I just started to put him into his cot and pat him till he went to sleep. I know it is tough when you have a toddler to contend with as well, but after a few weeks of just sticking with patting instead of rocking he got the picture- and now he is much better. He goes to sleep in his cot every night, some night we still have to pat him but it is much better for my back and my sanity than rocking him.
I can so sympathise with not sleeping anywhere else, at that age Liam never slept in his pram, car seat, swing, rocker etc- but as you know he is a different baby now. Just believe that it will get better!

Gosh your post took me back T! Once upon a time I thought I would be walking and rocking a 21 year old boy around the house to get him to sleep :lol: Seriously. But he did eventually grow out of it, as well as being wrapped. I had to cut down on the rocking as he was just too heavy, so I used to sit in a rocking chair. I think he was getting ready to change anyway. That was maybe at around 9 months? Wrapping followed a month or two later :redface: (yes, I am aware that it is ridiculous to wrap a child of 10 months ;)). My DS is only just now relaxing and embracing sleep time. And that's only some of the time!

I have no idea when, but your DS WILL grow out of it! Just hold onto that thought while you're wearing a path into your halls :hug:

He definitely will grow out of it. I rocked/cuddled DD#1 to sleep until she was 10 months. Then we bit the bullet and tried other ways (not CC!) and she surprised me by making the transition really well.

Janie - I was once told by a supposed expert that we should all be wrapping our babies until they're at least 12 months!

LOL Lulu, I kept getting told that he was too old to be wrapped! I got quite stressed about it in the end, I wish I'd relaxed about it more. I think everyone harping on at me made it harder. He just loved to be wrapped to sleep, big deal! I wish I could still wrap him now PMSL!

Next bub will be wrapped for as long as s/he wants :D

ladies, I am in the same boat. My daughte is only having 20 minute naps during the day which then makes her really tired at night.

I was advised to do the whole control crying thing with her but am finding it really hard to stick to it as it is causing her so much distress. Her throat is hoarse from all the crying.

Should I keep rocking her and give the whole control crying a miss? I just want her to sleep longer during the day so she is not so tired.

Please help!