Gentle sleep training for 1 year old

[Whitelinencandle]

Desperately want to improve my 1 year olds sleep. Currently he is waking every 1-2 hours. I get him to sleep by walking round the room playing a lullaby and then put him in bed once he’s asleep (we co sleep for sanity.)

But then once he wakes I try to walk him round the room again and that works most the time but as soon as I go to sleep I just breastfeed him for the rest of his wake ups.

I don’t want to do anything harsh where he is crying a lot bcos he is a very clingy baby and I don’t think either of us could cope with that. I just want things to improve even marginally. Mainly bcos I am a single mum and starting uni in a few months and want his sleep to improve by then.

Any ideas??

I've been where you are. Consider night weaning - for us it dramatically reduced wakeups.

When he wakes you want to give as little interaction as possible to resettle him. Eventually he will learn to self soothe as he knows Mummy is nearby

How I nightweaned:

On wakeup, put on white noise (we used Ewan the sheep). Don't pick him up, but put a hand on his tummy/back and pat him gently, in time with Ewan's heartbeat. Don't speak or make eye contact. If he's upset, you can shhhh him gently. Give this a good few minutes to work.

If he's not having it, pick him up. Do the same as above, but this time bob him gently up and down. Again, give this a good few minutes.

If he's still unsettled, feed to sleep.

Initially, step 1 isn't going to work every time. You have to keep doing it every wake up. The message you're sending is that he needs to sleep now, but Mummy is still here.

After doing this for a week-ish, my son slept much better. He was down to 1-2 wakes rather than 6-12.

Good luck