I have gotten several comments or emails in regards to how did WE break from rocking Grayson to sleep. So I thought that I would do a brief post on this! First I will state that I didn't want to rock Grayson to sleep in the first place, but since I breastfed Grayson this was one way that Chad and Grayson were able to bond. Chad would rock Grayson each night. It was a special moment they had when he was a newborn and it became a habit that I thought would be horrible to break.
I personally didn't feel like rocking Grayson until he was 5 years old, nothing is wrong with this if you do so, but if we have another baby I can't see how I could have time to do this. So it was time to break the habit. Plus a few weeks before I went to Los Angeles in April Grayson started drinking a bottle and than he would want to be put down and play for 30 minutes before going to sleep which turned into a long bedtime routine. He did this each night I was away too! So when I got home we started our work on getting him to go to sleep on his own without being rocked. First thing we did was let Grayson play in his crib in small doses throughout the day so he knew that it was okay to be in his room by himself. I really think this helped. Grayson still gets a bottle at night before going to bed so we would give him the bottle in his room and once he was finished we would put him in his crib. The first night was the LONGEST! It took one hour and 30 minutes for Grayson to go to sleep on that first night! It was a long waiting game, but we did not give in. We let him stay in his crib until he fell asleep. The funny thing is Grayson didn't cry the first night he just played. The second night it took 30 minutes and the third night it took 20 minutes or so. After the first three nights it now only takes between 5-15 minutes for Grayson to fall asleep. This was a TRUE blessing! I was so worried that the habit of rocking Grayson would not be able to be broken, but at the right moment and time we were able to do so. The great news is I can now put him in his crib for naps too and he goes to sleep all on his own.
Next habit we are trying to break is the bottle. This has been tough...but we are not giving up.
I hope this helps!
I can't do a post without a picture so I am sharing this picture of Grayson on this past Sunday. He loves to put things on his head and walk around. It is so funny!
