Rocking to sleep

DD is 8 months old and has had terrible reflux since a couple of weeks old which has meant that she has screamed 2-6hours every evening. We have finally only just got on top of it (touch wood!) in the last couple of weeks through dietary changes and supplements.

Anyhow... For about the past 4 months we have rocked her to sleep in a rocking chair and put her down asleep and each time she wakes re-rocked her. I know this is not ideal, and have read a few books like 'the no cry sleep solution', so have some ideas for how to break the bad habit.

The thing is, it is really working out fine for us at the moment! She rarely takes more than 5-10minutes to fall asleep and (unless her brother wakes her up) she only wakes up once to feed during the night, and has just started (finally) extending her day sleeps past 1 hour.

I am interested to hear anyone elses experiences with rocking (or feeding etc) to sleep. Is it all eventually going to turn to crap with us having to break the habit, or do they just eventually sort themselves out?

Thanks

We rocked both our kids to sleep .. they eventually outgrew it, so I dont necessarily think you are going to get yourself into trouble with doing this.

Elias was able to settle alone much quicker than Isabelle so he was able to be put down awake at three months or so and we now only occassionally have to rock him (and thats seems to be coinciding with him teething).

Isabelle wouldnt fall asleep alone for what seemed like forever but by the time she was one, she was old enough to be happy to be put down asleep, often she needed us to sit in her room (I used to read a book) but as she got older she was perfectly able to go down and stay down on her own.

Actually we have much less hassle with her bedtime now than many other people who have gone the conventional "teach them to sleep" route.

I rocked Ty to sleep until he was 6 months. I loved it, he's not at all a cuddly baby so it's the only time I got to sit there and snuggle him! At 6 months it started to become a problem because he started to really fight sleep, so we had 3 nights of CIO and he's been a dream baby ever since... Now I put him in his cot wide awake at sleep time, he has a little play and then falls asleep

If it works for you... keep doing it I say!

i rocked mikey to sleep for about 8 months, i didn't see anything wrong with it at all. unfortunately he was a very big baby and eventually got too heavy for me to keep doing it so i had to stop but if he had been smaller i think i would havekept doing it until he outgrew it. i never did it with maia because she was a completely different baby and actually preferred to go to sleep by herself.

i agree with the others, if it's working for you then just go with it. it sounds like you're doing a great job.

If you like it don't change. When he's all grown up you won't regret the cuddles, and the looking at your sleeping baby's face in your arms.    

My DS doesn't really liked being rocked to sleep by me but for some reason he's happy if it's DH.

My boy also had reflux, not diagnosed till 4mths, up till then I thought that people talking about babies "self settling" were bonkers. Then after he was medicated I understood that it was possible for babies to just fall asleep (who knew?). I don't think that at any point I could have "taught" my baby to sleep. They do or they don't and we (parents) just have to do the best we can.

I agree with the other ladies, if you are happy to do it and enjoy it then don't change anything. With baby/toddler/child sleep I have learned to expect the unexpected and just when you think you've got it all sussed out, they up and change the tune on you.

I stopped worrying about the 'what ifs' (those of you who help babies/toddlers to sleep will know the ones I mean) and just did what we needed to do for us ALL to get the sleep we needed; even went back to night feeding when he started waking again after 3 weeks of sleeping 10+ hours cause it was quick and simple and I wasn't up for a 'fight' at 2am. He stopped sharing our bed at 5.5 months all on his own (much to my disgust), he stopped being rocked to sleep regularly about a month before that (again, at times much to my disgust) and I reckon he stopped feeding to sleep regularly at around 7 months which is when he started the 10+ hours at night. I night weaned him at 11 months (started at 9 months) and his sleeping totally turned to custard and no amount of rocking, shushing, or even offering to feed him worked so we were sooooo tired! We never 'taught' him to 'self settle', he just did it one day all on his own, but even now (and that's been ALOT recently) he gets help if he needs it.

I mean seriously, has anyone ever heard of a mum having to go to university with their teenager so they can be rocked to sleep?

I've taken to rocking DD to sleep (or walking her in my arms) since she started to crawl a few months ago and won't lay down in her cot by herself. She is 1 now and I still have to do this for every sleep which is hard but I find I can sit down and cuddle her with a gentle rock which is easier. We don't do this at night as usually a feed or cuddle will work instead (most of the time). Most of the time I enjoy the cuddles but tbh I just have no energy or patience to try and make her settle by herself at the moment so this works out best for us all.

Gosh another thing for plunket to tell me I am doing wrong LOL

We dont always rock Jake to sleep but some nights he just wont settle and he gets rocked.... As everyone else has said... do what works for you that you are comfortable and happy to do!