Oh, that sounds so familiar! We used to have to rock Ben forever – I couldn’t even count the number of hours I spent in that rocking chair! Crying it out didn’t work for him, he would literally cry forever if we let him, but that was heartbreaking. If I wanted him to sleep at all, he had to be rocked until he was totally out for both naps and nighttime. Then all of a sudden at about 7 months old, he started to fuss and push away while I was rocking him, like as if he didn’t want to be held or snuggled. Out of frustration, thinking now I’ll never get him to sleep, I just laid him down in his crib fully awake and to my surprise he talked himself to sleep. I guess he was just ready to do it on his own. He has fallen asleep on his own ever since then. I’m still rocking Paige to sleep right now, but she is only 3 months yet. We’ll be crossing that bridge again before long!
Now I’m sure every child is different, and Ariella may not decide she wants to do it on her own. In that case, I totally agree with what the others have said. Try cutting it back at naps first, or do it until it doesn’t work anymore. That’s kind of like what happened for us, it stopped working at 7 months, and he did it on his own from there.
Good luck!
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