I think we messed up..

So for our 2.5 year old, he is still rocked to sleep every night. We had started to work on getting him to fall asleep in his crib, but he began daycare a few months ago and we went back to rocking because it was obvious he missed us and needed that connection. Additionally, he still takes a bottle with watered down milk. Yes, I know cavities. And finally he's been on a paci since day 1. Kid came out of the womb looking for something to suck. Two weeks ago we decided to start with cutting out the paci. And I think this was the wrong choice it what we needed to correct. We did the snip method, said it was broken and we would send to his favorite character to fix. Well it's led to more bottle drinking (sucking moreso than hunger) and waking up even more than he used to. But within the past 2 days he's finally done better with daycare naps, was only sleeping 30-45min. And idk if we just go back to pacis and work on getting rid of the bottle finally and being able to fall asleep on his own. Or just power through and hope. All I know, is hubby and I running thin and tired from 2 weeks of overnight fighting.

Show your support

I don't know if this is the best advice, but I'd give him some tough love 🤷‍♀️ I say no bottle. Not even with water because that will make it difficult for you to potty train him or increase the risk of accidents if he does go to bed without a pull-up or diaper. This all sounds like too much stress for you! Maybe prep him throughout the day by telling him "tonight mom and dad aren't going to rock you to sleep. But we can read you a book and then you'll need to go to sleep." You're still spending some time with him but phasing out the more baby-like methods.

@Mikayla I wish it could be like that. My kid feels things very strongly and whenever we have tried these methods he cries until he vomits. Literally. Then it's a whole thing to clean the crib and sheets and him. Which ends up waking him up more and makes it even harder to get him down.

I will start by saying my 2.5 year old told me she was done with bottles at around 1 and we stopped binkys around 2 by weening her off so it was in separate parts. I still put her to sleep but no longer rock her. Rocked her until around 2 years old though. For stopping the binky, we explained to her that we were no longer going to use the binky for nap time but we could hold her fav stuffy and still allowed binky for bedtime. Once we felt comfortable there, we did the same for bedtime and she no longer uses one. (We have a 2 month old so there are binkys around and she does not care to use them) For the rocking to sleep, we transitioned to me laying in bed with her and holding her, sometimes rubbing her back to help her relax. We just recently have her sleeping in a big bed with her 1.5 year old sister and they love having the company so that helps a lot - they’ve been sleeping through the night completely because of it

@Kira oh wow. Okay, maybe it's not that simple. I think my daughter is just more easy going. I don't know then 😔

ALSO, because I’m in the dental world, I must say it would be ideal to get the binky and bottle habits gone around 3. The long term effects can cause malocclusion

Does he have a favorite toy? My son will choose a toy every night that he wants to snuggle in bed and that honestly has helped him fall asleep on his own.

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌