rocking chair addiction - please help!

[sillysmile]

My 23m DD is still waking 4-5 times and night and often needs rocking to get back to sleep. Sometimes I can get her back to sleep in 15 minutes, but it usually takes closer to an hour. I think that I've created a terrible sleep-disrupting sleep association, and feel terrible about it.

I was hoping that she would just gradually start sleeping longer chunks after we nightweaned about 6 months ago, but it just hasn't happened. We're expecting our 2nd this Spring, and really need to do what we can to help her sleep longer chunks without needing our assistance. Please help!

So my first question is:

- If we get her to learn to fall asleep lying down, do you think that will decrease the number of night wakings where she needs our assistance to get back to sleep?

Next, what do you think of the following strategies?

- Plan A. Cold turkey. The rocking chair disappears one day. When we try to lay down on the bed calmly, she just shouts "in the rocking chair! in the rocking chair!" and works herself into hysterics if it's denied. We've considered just removing it from the room one day and just showing her that it's gone, since that seems in some ways easier than depriving her of it when it's sitting right there.

- Plan B. Gradual weaning. When she asks to be rocked, rock her for less and less time and keep trying to take her back to the bed. This hasn't worked very well in the past since she just gets more and more agitated, but maybe I haven't been persistent enough.

- Plan C. Nothing. (i.e. She will wake when she needs us; nothing we do will really change that and her sleep will gradually improve on its own.)

What would you do? Can you think of another approach that might work?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Louisep]

Hugs, that must be exhausting.

We went cold turkey on motion to fall asleep. I just decided that enough was enough and we'd lie down and cuddle until he fell asleep. Strangely enough, it worked without crying. DS was much younger than your DD when we did it though. It did not alter the number of wakings, but made a huge difference to me not having to physically get out of bed to get him back to sleep. Eventually he started sleeping longer chunks of time which I still think was teething related.

If I were in your shoes, I'd try the gradual approach first and see if that gets you anywhere. Also, it will take a loooooong time for your DD to fall asleep by any other method for awhile, but I have no doubt she'll adapt with time.

HTH