Breastfeeding and sleep/rountine. Advice please.

[Mixedupmummy]

I need help seeing how to approach this.

Despite this being my third baby I'm at a bit of a loss.

Dc1 was (sadly for me) only bf for a short time due to various issues and was then on bottles/formula. By 12 weeks she was in a great feeding, napping and sleeping routine and self settling without much of an issue. She was a very happy baby, slept through very early on and still sleeps brilliantly as a 5 year old

Dc2 came along and bf brilliantly and gained loads of weight. Great. But I felt like a first time mum again as bf was so different from ff. Lots of things I hadn't dealt with before but mainly with always feeding baby to sleep. Firstly because feeds were so frequent then because she wouldn't feed well unless sleepy as she got so distracted. So she wasn't in a decent rountine till 9 months and it was a very tricky getting her to self settle. This was tricky due to the length of time it took to feed, wind and settle baby for each sleep and having dd1. but dd1 was 3.5 at the time and really good and patient so just about mangable albeit stressful at times and guilt inducing (for neglecting poor dd1). Dd2 didn't sleep through the night till I stopped feeding her at 13months and still wakes at 5.30am most mornings.

Dc3 is now 5 weeks. He is also ebf and I'm feeding on demand. I see myself going down the same road as with dd2. But I have a 2 and 5 year old now to look after. Urgh! 2 year old is not so patient or good. Baby has woken up now and is already taking longer to settle and wakes more easily. Having 2 noisy sisters running around doesn't help. feeding, winding and settling him can take an hour sometimes. Only for him to wake a short while later and repeat the process.

Of course its early days and I expect things to be a muddle and juggle for a while. But i really need/want to be able to pop dc3 down (awake) for a decent nap and at bed time in a couple of months.

Is this possible if I'm breastfeeding? How do I get there?

I'm trying putting baby down drowsy but awake but it doesn't seem to work very often as, more often than not, he is due/wants a feed after being awake for a couple of hours. Or if he does drift off wakes after 20-30 mins due to hunger and I'm back to square one.

Sorry that got so long
Any advice appreciated.

[MollyDaydream]

I always fed mine on wake up rather than before sleeps - our 'routine' at that age was feed, change, cuddle, sleep, feed etc.
I didn't bother trying to put DC3 to bed for a nap til 4-5 months, up til then naps were in the pram, swing or sling.
In my experience short naps (unless walking) are the norm until about 6 months.

[MollyDaydream]

Also dummy and comfort blanket/muslin for naps.

[Mixedupmummy]

Our routine seems to be wake, feed, change/play/cuddle, feed again, sleep.
Trying a dummy but he's not accepting of it very often. Only seems to work if hes comfort feeding but there's too much milk for his liking.

[MollyDaydream]

I'd try to get him to sleep without feeding, motion usually works.