Transitioning away from rocking to sleep

Hi All. Has anyone successfully managed to transition away from rocking baby to sleep? My little one usually feeds to sleep, but on occasion when he's not hungry, I will rock and pat him. He's beginning to get very heavy now, and I'm suffering a lot of joint pain since giving birth, so I'd like to move away from this if possible. I'm thinking to try patting him or another method to help soothe him that I can do without picking him up eventually. Has anyone had success in doing this? Any suggestions how to soothe without rocking and to transition away from rocking? He's grown quite used to it, so I imagine it'll take some time to do so. Thanks!

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I need to know what people suggest as I do the exact same thing! Looking to transition away from this also. My LB is quite the lump now, and I can't do this forever 🙈

Hi :) we stopped feeding to sleep, we now put her down awake and she takes herself off to sleep 😍 I listened to The Sleep Mum's Podcast, there's an episode called How to settle your baby, and it specifically discusses how to stop the feeding/rocking to sleep! Saved my sanity ♥️

@Kat That's brilliant, clever girl! Does she fall asleep without crying though? I'll definitely take a listen, thank you.

We sometimes get a minute of crying at the beginning but she soon stops and then just chatters to herself until she falls asleep! We did have a fair bit of crying when we first started but it soon settled after a couple days It did feel really difficult and mean at the time, but she sleeps so much better and is a happier girl since she gets some decent sleep without having to be fed to sleep every 45 mins through the night 😬

@Kat That's interesting, thanks for sharing. So does she just know it's time to sleep when you put her down in her cot?

Yeah she does, she'll suck her thumb and chatter and just goes off to sleep. We use the same routine as night time sleeps for naps