Back to work in less than 2 weeks, too late to sleep train

[CerseiLannistersEyebrow]

My baby wakes up every half hour to hour. I'm back to work in a fortnight. My DH does nights but cos I'm here he can take naps to stay sane.

We feed to sleep as he's teething its the time he's likely to take most milk. His sleep has been like this for months. On days he drinks a lot it doesn't seem to make a difference to his sleep. He sleeps in a cot next to bed.

Is it a bad time to try to stop this? I don't really know where to start or what to do to help this. I'm worried my DH is going to go mental from lack of sleep!

[nottheOP]

Wowsers. How old is he? What's his routine?

A lot can change in two weeks

[Wishful80smontage]

Agree I changed dd's sleep pattern in a week

[CerseiLannistersEyebrow]

He's nearly 7 months. Has 3 naps a day ranging from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, bedtime is usually around 7pm. We play musical teddy, have a bottle, and I stay with him til he falls asleep.

[CerseiLannistersEyebrow]

He wakes up anytime from 5-7am. He doesn't seem overtired, he's always in a lovely mood in the day.

[nottheOP]

Well his daytime routine seems good to me. It is a typical age to transition from 3-2 naps and when this happens they'll probably regulate to being 2, 1.5 hour naps. They tend to do this on their own by fighting the last nap of the day to the point where you give up. Are the naps in his cot?

Re the bedtime routine, I'd change it slightly so that you give the milk downstairs then upstairs, teeth brushing if he has any, grobag, book and then bed. The distance between milk feed and sleep is to help break any feed to sleep associations that may be there.

For the next step, the goal would be that you put him down wide awake in his cot and then leave him to it. What happens if you leave? Does he get upset? You can just try him to see what happens. You can then either inch closer to the door every other evening (gradual withdrawal) or you could do a bit of controlled crying.

At 6 months i'd do intervals of 1 min, 2 mins then every 5 until he goes to sleep. When you go in to reassure him that you are there, you leave him in his cot but just say, 'it's time to sleep now' or similar, quick bum/tummy rub, then go.

Does he have any nighttime milk feeds? I'd say that depending on how solids have gone, a bedtime feed at 7, a dreamfeed or one more in the night should be enough. I'd limit yourself to this number and for all other wakings, I'd settle as above.

Consistency is key so for naps, do a similar routine of upstairs to bed, curtains closed, nappy change, gro bag then bed and settle in the same way.

Hopefully this will help.

[CerseiLannistersEyebrow]

Thank you for advice. He cries if I leave before he's asleep. Weaning is going very slowly, he's not even swallowing puree.

[CerseiLannistersEyebrow]

Yes, he wakes up for milk. He'll take a full bottle of 5oz when we go to bed and then wake up a few times to drink.

[nottheOP]

How is his feeding in the day? The aim would be to try and meet his feeding requirements in the daytime. There is no need for him to feed every 30-60 minutes at nighttime. Does he take a lot of milk each time?

I would restrict it to feeding at 7pm, 10.30/11pm, 3am and then 7am. Settle by any other means in between those times.

Do not feed to sleep at any time.

[farfallarocks]

I sleep trained my daughter in 3 nights, 2 weeks before I went to work. Her sleep was getting worse and worse and she was waking very hour, feeding for a couple of minutes and then back to sleep, I was on my news and it was not going to be sustainable.

First night of controlled crying took 2 hrs for her to settle, 2nd night 30 mins, 3rd night 5 mins. She still had a feed at 11/12 and was so much happier in the day and night, she simply did not know how to put herself to sleep.

[luckiestgirlintheworld]

Sleep training took 2 nights for me, and I don't think that's unusual.

[CerseiLannistersEyebrow]

We put him in his own room 2 nights ago and he's only woken up twice to drink. So it looks like it was us waking him up!