Sorry-- he's a five WEEK old. My bad!

it will be interesting to find out what others think. my baby is 3 weeks old. she falls asleep in the same manner as your son, but half the time when i put her down in the pack 'n' play, bassinet, or crib, her eyes become wide open and then i have to start the process all over again!

Have you tried swaddling him? He might feel all warm and snug being rocked by you and then all of a sudden "loose" and less secure when you put him down. I had the same problem with mine when she was about 10 weeks, and I started swaddling her, and she stayed asleep. She's almost 5 months, and I only swaddle her for naps, but we're about to phase that out.

Swaddle! That is what saves us with my 7 wo

I agree with the swaddler... also as my DD got older the tv bothers her.. in fact she wont hardly fall asleep in the living room anymore.. we have tons of problems getting her to sleep at almost 5 months i believe at least part of it is we didn't get her in good sleep habits early.. I would suggest a dark quite room for all rocking to sleep and naps as well as laying down drowsy but awake.. I have no idea how to do this now since my DD is old enough to know the difference.. just my suggestion..

I think the sooner you try letting the baby go to sleep on its own the better. Don't force it but just try a little every day. And yes, nice quiet room is a must. Do a little routine every time and put her down and if it doesn't work do the usual that time. We didn't do this and I'm still rocking to sleep at 11 months. I don't know if things would have been different if I tried sleep training sooner but I know that I tried at 6 months and nothing worked. Around 3 weeks or so my son became so much more alert and aware of his surroundings and it was difficult to make him go to sleep. The "happiest baby on the block" book worked very well for us at that time - swaddle tight, shhhh and rock in a jittery sort of way (like nervous person tapping foot). Made him go to sleep in a minute instead of 5-10 minutes.

I learned this recently and it SO HELPED ME!

As adults, we go into light sleep and then fall into the deeper REM sleep. however, BABIES are backwards. They almost instantly fall into REM sleep and then slowly move into a lighter phase of sleeping. What this means is that when they FIRST fall asleep, it's a deep one, and sudden mvoement/light shifts will not only wake them but startle them.

Knowing this, I now will only rock my son WHILE I'm giving him his pre-nap bottle (or pre-bedtime bottle) and then I immediately plug in his pacifier and put him RIGHT down to sleep while his eyes are still heavy but slightly OPEN and not completely conked out. He's tired enough to WANT to fall deep asleep, but not so deep asleep that I startle him by moving him.

This has SERIOUSLY shortened the time I rock him, which I miss, and sometimes he's so fussy I DO have ot rock him a bit more....but putting him down in that crucial heavy-eye-lid phase made all the difference in the world.

i do the EXACT same thing as hnelson, but I never really knew why it worked before!
I've been doing this since she was about a month old. occasionally when I lay her down her eyes will open wide, but only for a moment, and then they drift closed and her eyes start moving.