Gentle sleep training

[edin16]

How did you do gentle sleep training?
DS is 18 weeks and is being cuddled to sleep but I want to try and get him to fall asleep on his own. He goes to bed around the same time every night, I can't do that much of a routine with him as he doesn't get bathed every night and if I put him in his pjs too early he dribbles/chews the sleeves so much that they're soaking wet! We read a book sometimes if he's still in a good mood. And a feed of course. His last nap finishes between 5 and 6. Awake time is around 2 hours.
He doesn't have sleep cues (or hunger cues). One minute he's perfectly happy then the next it's like he hasn't slept all day!
I've tried putting him in his cot and lying next to him but that ends in serious tears and I've tried putting him down sleepy but it wakes him up again. So we repeat again and it again ends in tears because at that point he's over tired. I feel like I'm essentially doing cry it out but just being in the room for it. And I swear he's already learnt that pulling his dummy out makes him wake up again!
It's just me so I'm doing all naps and bed time's, unless we're round at his grandparents in which case they can occasionally get him to sleep with lots of bouncing around.
I've read lots and vary between thinking it's fine to cuddle him, it's for such a short amount of time and then sometimes I'm adamant I'll get him to do it alone. So I thought I'd ask the hive mind for tips?

[Dexy2020]

Hi
I'm not sure your little one will be developmentally ready for sleep training at 18 weeks old but I could be wrong 🥰I think the general consensus is around 6 months. I did it with my little boy at 6.5 months and really don't think he would have been ready for it up until this point. I think cuddles are totally fine and I imagine mentally for you knowing he's gone off to sleep cuddled, happy and warm is better all round for the moment 😍xx