The sleep battle

[wafflelover]

Since my son was born he's always fell asleep at night either on the bottle or having a cuddle. Iv never managed to put him in his bed and let him fall asleep himself and I can't do controlled crying. When he wakes up during the night I either give him a bottle and cuddle till he goes to sleep or let him sleep in my bed. He's 1 in a couple of days and were up pretty much every night, sometimes we get lucky and he sleeps right through. I'm just wondering am I doomed forever because I never made him learn to fall asleep in his bed on his own?

I am the same as you except I use boob not bottle. I can't do CIO either but desperate for some sleep.

Well he won't be doing it at 18.

You can try cutting the amount of milk at night gradually to see if that helps.

Gradually change things and see what happens. My two were cuddled to sleep - my youngest still gets a cuddle but into cot awake now at 23 months.

it depends what you mean by CC or CIO. There is a big difference between just leaving them for ages to scream and not going in at the first murmur. If he is def. awake, try going settling him down and then just standing by the cot, maybe holding his hand or with a hand on his chest til he drops off. Do that for a bit, then move on to standing there but not touching him, then a bit further away and so on. I agree also with trying to reduce the middle of the night milk if you can. At one, its unlikely he needs it for hunger reasons, so maybe switch to water or reduce the amount. If CC is not for you (or him) then a more gradual approach is the only way. It will take a but longer but at least you are actively working on it so you casn envisage an end in sight. Good luck

Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? I found it was recommended a lot on here and it has helped us to make slow by steady improvements with our sleep-refusing 7 month old while still feeding and cosleeping.

It's actually not that hard to change sleep especially once at this age - it just feels so hard because you are tired

In NCss there is a useful suggestion to write down what you hope to achieve - so you go into it with a clear head - I think always best to start with the time before midnight as you are less tired and it will have a Knock on effect later anyway

If you want him to go into his cot awake the focus on that for now - do a nice sleepy routine put him in cot - you could sing/ shhhh him and sit next to cot or you could walk in and out comforting and saying sleep time and lying him down if he stands

He will sleep eventually as he will be tired! You don't need to leave him wailing - just keep comforting but try not to pick up from cot

Honestly it's lovely to see when they learn that cot is for sleep - I put ds in his cot and he cuddles his toys and makes himself comfy .

I agree with the No Cry Sleep Solution suggestion to deal with night wakeups, also with watering down his milk until it's basically water.

The only other thing I would say is that at 1, presumably he's got teeth, so... he shouldn't be going to sleep with a bottle now. Very, very bad for his teeth. The last thing in his mouth should be a toothbrush. You say he sometimes goes to sleep with a cuddle, so I'd try to substitute water for that last bottle and cuddle him to sleep instead.