Sleep training for an 8 month old. Where do I start? Help me pleeeeease!

[Swaddleblanket]

My 8 month old has never been able to fall asleep by himself. We have always rocked/cuddled him to sleep from around 4 months old. Before then, he wouldn’t sleep anywhere except for one me or my husband.

8 months in and he is getting harder and harder to rock/cuddle to sleep. If we leave him to wear himself out in his cot, he climbs up so keep having to go in and lay him down so he doesn’t fall backwards.

I don’t know where to start and feel so overwhelmed with all the different sleep advice out there.

I want him to fall asleep by himself and ideally sleep through. He currently wakes 3 times a night and most of the time it ends in us giving him a bottle.

What can I do, what will work? He’s not so far been a baby I can leave to cry as he’s always been cuddled to sleep.

Worried it’s too late at 8 months to introduce anything new but we are getting hardly any sleep and feels worse now than it did at the start.

Google gradual retreat. 8 months is still a little baby in the grand scheme of things so it’s definitely not too late!

Just rock your baby to sleep - 8 months is still so young, and they need you. If they need fed, then so be it. I would steer well clear of sleep training techniques and just go by your baby's cues.
I know it's hard, and it's a cliche to say it but it doesn't last forever.