We're going to a funeral in two weeks' time, when DS will be 23 weeks. It's at least a two hour drive away, and the service isn't until the afternoon, so we'll be gone for a full day, and probably won't be back until quite late.
My sister will be looking after DS for the day. He'll need at least two naps (possibly three), and may well need to be put to bed too. But he can't settle himself to sleep, and needs to be rocked, or sometimes fed, to sleep every time. At bedtimes in particular, he'll often sleep for about five or ten minutes, then wake up screaming, and we have to go through the whole rocking back to sleep routine again.
Until two weeks ago, he wouldn't settle to sleep for anyone except me. Now DP can occasionally get him to sleep, but usually it still falls to me. Last time my sister looked after him, she had to take him for a walk in the pram to get him to sleep- and she's a nursery nurse, so is well used to encouraging babies to sleep!
Are there any alternatives to controlled crying that are suitable for a baby under six months, that we could start trying now, to help him learn to self-settle? I'm worried that he just won't sleep all day, and I'll come back to a screaming, hysterical-with-tiredness little boy!