Sleeping Issue

I remember going through this with my eighteen month-old. What worked for me was to transition to reading a story in the rocking chair then place my daughter in her bed awake. I would then stay in the room, moving further away each night until she fell asleep. The final stage left me sitting outside her door. It took over a week but it worked. Good luck!

Hi there! I was still rocking my daughter to sleep at your daughter's age, and what I did was I would rock her to drowsy, and then lay her down. It took a lot of nights doing that, but she eventually got that I wasn't going to let her fall fully asleep rocking. Shortly thereafter she stopped wanting to go to sleep first. She would just flat out refuse! We still rock before bed, even now at 2.5 years, but it's our quiet, wind-down time. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though so don't worry!

I couldn't do the Ferber method. I put my daughter in her crib, turn on some lullabyes, and rub her back or belly until she falls asleep on her own. She knows I'm there, but I try not to pick her up.

I hope that helps. Everyone is different, but that's what my mom suggested to me, and it works beautifully. I started this at about 9 months. Before that, I rocked my daughter to sleep also.

Hi K.,

There are very different ways of doing it and not everyone agrees with the CIO method. With our daughter (now 14 mo) we tried laying her down and cry forever method. 'I' couldn't do it. It tore me apart. We then went to the Ferber Method. Lie her down drowsy. Let her cry 3 minutes, go in (do not pick her) rub her back calm her down, leave, let her cry 5 minutes go in do the same, leave, let her cry 8 minutes go in do the same, etc. She never go past 10 minutes of crying. Do the same for naps. Now we put her down sleepy and leave with no problems. It's wonderful. Although the past two nights she wakes up (think it's teeth). The Ferber way helped me because I was able to go in and comfort and she new we weren't leaving her in there all alone. I think it took about 3 nights to get her in the routine.

Another Ferber note: keep her up a few minutes 'after' her scheduled bedtime. She will be too tired to cry.

Good luck....have a glass of wine during the crying :o) It helped me.

My children were about 4 months when we stopped rocking them to sleep. We had a projector that projected on the ceiling and played music. While this didn't always put them to sleep, it calmed them down enough to not be screaming. When they outgrew that we got a crib toy. My boys would play iwth it for a little then fall right to sleep. They are now 19 months and Almost 3 and they still are GREAT sleepers and sometimes have to let us know when it's nap time!

Hi K.,
I am currently using the Ferber method to get my little guy down for naps and to sleep at night. The longest he has cried was 20 minutes. I think the key is to get through a few days and then things will fall into place - its been 5 days for us and he is going down very easily now. The first 2 days was the hardest, but I know in my heart that he needs to become a good sleeper in order to be a happy baby!! I still nurse him before i put him down (or my husband rocks him) but we put him in the crib before he actually falls asleep. He fusses for a minute or two, but he is starting to get the idea that it is sleep time and he drifts off. Trust me- I was skeptical of this method but it really does work!!! You can get his book at Borders or Barnes and Noble.
Good luck to you!
T.

I placed a radio in the babies room and played easy listening music. SSometimes I used CD"s or casettes. I would rock them for a while until they were calm than placed them in the crib. They would be so involved in the music they didn,t notice they were not being held.