beabonnet

I agree. Your little boy is so little. He's a bit too little for the cry it out thing. Instead of rocking him to get him to sleep, though, you could wait until he's sleepy (right before he would nod off on his own) and then try to put him down. That way, he'll learn to put himself to sleep and won't need the rocking. But, I wouldn't try to put him down when he's not ready and let him cry himself to sleep at this age.

I do understand the frustration of the rocking. We did that with our daughter (now over 2 1/2). She got to the point where she got so used to it that she wouldn't sleep without it. THen we hit the point at which she realized what I was doing and would fight me (she would wiggle in my arms to prevent me from being able to rock her to sleep). So, at 3 am she'd wake up. And where before rocking her would do it, she would start to fight me and I'd end up with a screaming unhappy baby in the middle of the night. So we ended up having to do the cry it out thing and I hated it.

It was then that I read about the self-soothing, self putting to sleep techniques that she would have learned if I had put her down while she was sleepy enough to go to sleep after being put down but not so sleepy that she was already asleep. I read that whatever their last experience is before going to sleep is what they'll expect when they wake up, unless the baby put herself to sleep and then she'll be able to go back to sleep on her own. So, if you rocked the baby, the baby will expect to be rocked and can't go back to sleep without it. If the baby went to bed with a bottle, then the baby will have to have a bottle to go back to bed. Same thing, I think with pacifiers, sometimes, although our little guy isn't as hooked on them so he doesn't wake up needing one.

Unfortunately, we made that bottle mistake with my 2 1/2 year old when she was little and sometimes now she wakes up between 1 and 3 am absolutely having to have a cup before she goes back to bed. We weaned her of the middle of the night pacifier, but not the cup (sighs).

I'm hoping it goes easier with my new little guy. He's 3 months old and he's been doing pretty well at going to sleep when put down sleepy. I don't want to have to go through that cry it out thing (and I know some people are against it)

I've also read that having a bedtime routine helps them wind down and realize it's bedtime.