Today, I thought I would give y’all a full update on Beckham’s sleep schedule and transition out of rocking. I have had multiple messages for tips and how he is doing with the change to a toddler bed.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have talked a bit about the negative stigma and judgement around rocking babies to bed. Everything from “your baby should be sleeping through the night”, “rocking creates unhealthy sleeping habits”, “babies need to learn to fall asleep on their own”, “you need to sleep train”. It is really hard to continuously hear this, but in your gut you know that 1. Your baby is only going to be this small once, so soak it up. They will learn to sleep better and grow out of waking up so much at night, and 2. Mama knows best.

I have been rocking Beckham to sleep for every nap and bedtime since he was born. I usually would wait about 10 minutes and then lay him down. Many times at night, it would take multiple tries before he would stay asleep in his crib. Beckham hasn’t ever slept consistently through the night. He was a fantastic sleeper from 6 weeks old to 4 months, but since then it has been quite rough.

I made the plan to transition Beckham’s crib into a toddler bed for his second birthday. At that time, I decided to transition out of rocking and eventually encourage him to fall asleep on his own. Here is the steps that I am taking:

1. Stop rocking and just hold him while I rub his back. Lay down after 3-5 minutes. When he wakes up at night, just lay down next to him and rub his back.

2. Hold Beckham until he has heavy eyes then lay down in his bed and continue to rub his back until he falls asleep. Same plan at night.

3. Lay down in his bed with him until he falls asleep

4. Lay down in his bed until his eyes are heavy

5. Lay Beckham down in his bed and let him fall asleep completely on his own

Beckham has transitioned to his toddler bed with ease. Thankfully, he isn’t getting out of bed to come wake me up in the middle of the night. I am sure that is coming at some point. He is also sleeping the best he has in months. Only waking up 1-2 times at night, and going right back to sleep when he does. It takes maybe 5-10 minutes max to get him back asleep. I also don’t have to worry about laying him down in the crib, because he stays there the whole time. We are currently working on the second phase, which is going to take some time, but so far I am relieved on the progress.

Tips wise, I would encourage your tiny humans that it’s their big boy or big girl bed. Create a consistent bedtime routine. Reinforce how great of a job they are doing when they take a nap or when they wake up in the morning.

If you have any questions or if I missed something, please don’t hesitate to reach out.