Sleep training advice

[BumpLoading]

My DS is nearly 1 and still waking up every 2 hours at night. He has a good bedtime routine, bath, teeth, story. However he loves the boob and will mostly only settle with boob at night. He does take a dummy so can sometimes be rocked to sleep with a dummy, or cuddled with a dummy, but often feeds to sleep.
I'm considering now starting sleep training so wanted to see what others have tried and succeeded with? I would probably try cry it out methods as long as he was only fake crying (which is often what he does before I go in) and not hysterical crying.

Have you thought about giving cosleeping ago instead? I cosleep with my 13 month old and she sometimes feeds once a night or sometimes doesn’t. My older girl coslept with us until 2 and at 4 she normally sleeps through - maybe once every 6ish she wakes up.

I have tried cosleeping, and its lovely having bedtime snuggles but actually he wakes me up more than normal

It’s so exhausting this parenting business. The sleep board will have sleep training advice, sleep training not for me and I couldn’t be arse with doing again after every episode of teething or illness.

We moved DS back in with us at 1 because I was shattered from all the wake ups but we attached his cot to our bed at our level and we all slept so much better. He started sleeping right through and we then transitioned him back into his room just over a month ago and he's been fine ever since (he's now 20 months).

I did the cry it out and wish I'd done it sooner ..'my dd is 16months and would wake at 11pm and would not back down till she got in bed with me.. I realised when she was crying that there were no tears and she was actually just shouting ! That made me feel a little better and a week later if she wakes she shouts for 5mins and goes back to sleep. First night was two hours, second night 1hr , then 20mins so worked pretty quickly.
I had tried this previously but always gave in but once I realised she was only shouting I could live with that.. it's hard but worth it. But that's only my opinion and experience! Good luck with whatever method you choose.

Yes he is just shouting really, no tears which is what makes me think I could probably do cry it out if its just shouting, however I do think ill crack before 2 hours though

Are you talking about cry it out, or controlled crying?

It's normal to wake up frequently...

I tried it and it wasn’t for me. It won’t be this way forever it just feels like it when you’re in the thick of it. At about 18 months it was like a switch flicked and all of a sudden she was sleeping 11 hours straight. They all get there in their own time.
I do however ignore general moaning and groaning/restlessness and she does generally settle herself. If it escalates to proper crying/upset then I go in though.
As a pp said there are do many things that can disturb their sleep at this age that you’ll have to sleep train after every bout of illness or teething. Best to just ride it out imo.

We did controlled crying with both ours. It took a couple of nights to work but it does work well.

You'll get very mixed views on here, I think it depends on parenting ethos. And how bad they sleep. And how you cope. I did hardcore cry it out with my eldest when she was 6m old (to the day). In hindsight I can't believe I did that, it seems harsh. But honestly I was broken. She cried 1hr20 the first night, but not constantly, it was clear she was settling, 30mins the second night, 10 the third then slept through. With my second child I wanted to avoid ended up in this same position, he self soothed at bedtime from 4m old, but used to wake for 1-2hr party at 1am every night in a segmented sleep pattern. I ended up working with a sleep consultant at 1yo and doing controlled crying with interval checks, which totally did the job, no hysterics involved. Based on my own experience, I think some children do need sleep training and I personally would have no hesitation in doing whatever suited their personality.