My son is lousy at falling asleep.  Since the ripe old age of 6 months we’ve been jiggling and rocking this child to sleep.  In his crib he slept through the night, mostly, and always after 20 minutes of leg numbing jiggling and rocking.

Now, at 2 years old, I don’t find the jiggling that inconvenient and I do so enjoy some snuggle time, but my helping him to sleep is actually keeping him from falling back to sleep if he wakes up at night.

Over the last 2 years I’ve heard countless people say just let him cry it out, to which I say, you go cry yourself to sleep everynight.  That will make you LOVE bed time!

So today at nap time, I placed my son in his bed and left the room.  He wandered out several times, each time without a word or even eye contact I picked him up and placed him back in his bed.  After several repeats of this process I decided it would be easier to stay in his room.  So I laid him down again, told him it was time for “night night”, kissed his head and sat in the rocking chair, laptop in lap.

When he sat up or climbed out of bed, I simply pointed at his bed and he climbed back under the covers and laid down.  After just 10 minutes, (30 from the start), my kiddo fell asleep: on his own, no jiggling, no tears.

I promptly left the room and did my parenting touchdown dance…he sleeps, I rock!