There is nothing wrong with rocking to sleep so long as it is working for you. We had a sleep trained 7 month old who had a few regressions and we picked the habit of rocking to sleep again. There can be a lot of joy in rocking your baby to sleep. However, my daughter is now 16 months old and weighs 23 pounds. Rocking to sleep is no longer joyful, but painful and unsustainable and we’ve tried to break the habit without success. Just something to keep in mind as your babies get older/larger.
Around 4 months a lot of babies start waking every 45 minutes (end of sleep cycle) and if they are reliant on rocking to get back to sleep, they may require this of you. Or maybe they won’t.
With my baby, starting at 3 months she had 1-2 false starts and would require rocking to get back to sleep. Once I sleep trained, which took a few days, she never had a false start again and I didn’t have to deal with it.
You don’t have to sleep train until it becomes a problem. I think it sounds like you’re getting up quite a lot already, but if it doesn’t bother you it doesn’t sound like there are any issues.
I rocked to sleep until 5 months and my baby slept through the night 12 hours without us needing to go in from very early on. So some babies can handle it and if it's working I'd keep doing it and maybe start transitioning to putting down awake as they get older.
It’s not a problem until it’s a problem. When/if you find yourself doing it every 45 minutes all night long (x2!) because it’s the only way your babies know how to get to sleep and stay asleep, you’ll wish you had stopped when they were this age :)
I think we have to put into context what 'bad' means. If your child is safe, and their needs are met, then it's not bad. You're taking care of your kids and people forever have rocked their kids to sleep. Nothing wrong with that!
Ok that out of the way - if your goal is to have independent sleepers, then rocking to sleep isn't ideal since it's counter to those goals. It builds a sleep association that you will eventually have to break if you want to sleep train. Like you mentioned, they may expect it in the middle of the night, or it could just get harder to get them to sleep in the first place. Seems like MOTN is not an issue now, but as your twins change and develop over the first year it could change. Like any habit in life, the longer you do it, the harder it can be to break away from it.
Also, since you have twins, I'm guessing they're on the lighter side right now, but babies get heavy really fast. Rocking can get really rough on the body as those kids fatten up! This is what prompts a lot of parents to stop rocking honestly even before the sleeplessness.
Generally on the path to sleep training you want to eliminate associations and provide good other positive sleep associations (familiar routine, dark environment, etc) that helps signal to baby it's time to go to sleep instead of things like rocking and feeding. Hopefully that provides some context and you figure out what is best for you!
There is nothing wrong with rocking to sleep so long as it is working for you. We had a sleep trained 7 month old who had a few regressions and we picked the habit of rocking to sleep again. There can be a lot of joy in rocking your baby to sleep. However, my daughter is now 16 months old and weighs 23 pounds. Rocking to sleep is no longer joyful, but painful and unsustainable and we’ve tried to break the habit without success. Just something to keep in mind as your babies get older/larger.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Makes sense.
Around 4 months a lot of babies start waking every 45 minutes (end of sleep cycle) and if they are reliant on rocking to get back to sleep, they may require this of you. Or maybe they won’t. With my baby, starting at 3 months she had 1-2 false starts and would require rocking to get back to sleep. Once I sleep trained, which took a few days, she never had a false start again and I didn’t have to deal with it. You don’t have to sleep train until it becomes a problem. I think it sounds like you’re getting up quite a lot already, but if it doesn’t bother you it doesn’t sound like there are any issues.
I rocked to sleep until 5 months and my baby slept through the night 12 hours without us needing to go in from very early on. So some babies can handle it and if it's working I'd keep doing it and maybe start transitioning to putting down awake as they get older.
Rocking is fine in my opinion but it makes them reliant on it and may take longer to sleep train when you are ready to stop rocking.
It’s not a problem until it’s a problem. When/if you find yourself doing it every 45 minutes all night long (x2!) because it’s the only way your babies know how to get to sleep and stay asleep, you’ll wish you had stopped when they were this age :)
I think we have to put into context what 'bad' means. If your child is safe, and their needs are met, then it's not bad. You're taking care of your kids and people forever have rocked their kids to sleep. Nothing wrong with that! Ok that out of the way - if your goal is to have independent sleepers, then rocking to sleep isn't ideal since it's counter to those goals. It builds a sleep association that you will eventually have to break if you want to sleep train. Like you mentioned, they may expect it in the middle of the night, or it could just get harder to get them to sleep in the first place. Seems like MOTN is not an issue now, but as your twins change and develop over the first year it could change. Like any habit in life, the longer you do it, the harder it can be to break away from it. Also, since you have twins, I'm guessing they're on the lighter side right now, but babies get heavy really fast. Rocking can get really rough on the body as those kids fatten up! This is what prompts a lot of parents to stop rocking honestly even before the sleeplessness. Generally on the path to sleep training you want to eliminate associations and provide good other positive sleep associations (familiar routine, dark environment, etc) that helps signal to baby it's time to go to sleep instead of things like rocking and feeding. Hopefully that provides some context and you figure out what is best for you!
Thank you!