I can't comfort my son

[maternitart]

Sometimes - most of the time - I can't comfort my son when he needs to nap/sleep and I am finding it v upsetting.

If I try shushing, stroking, cuddling or rocking him to sleep, he usually screams just as much if not more than when he's in the cot. He used to self-settle easily (doing a kind of mantra cry moan) but seems to have lost this ability. Sometimes I am able to feed him to sleep but this isn't a great solution.

Where have I gone wrong and how can I make it better? I know on occasion it's probably over tiredness but I'm working hard on that now.

He will sometimes but not consistently sleep in the buggy or sling with face covered.

How old is he?

Loud music helped both my babies if they were frantically overtired and struggling to fall asleep - no namby pamby soft lullabies, loud enough to compete with the crying. This worked well in the car, or combined with rocking.

Sorry, he's 6 months old. This is a fairly recent thing, maybe past 6 weeks or so (well it's certainly got worse in that time).

I don't want to feed him to sleep because I would like my husband to be able to settle him too, or for him to get back into self settling, and he often drinks so much he is sick if I feed him between his usual feeds (I have a strong let down). It also doesn't always work, and often he'll seem "asleep" while feeding but as soon as I move him he'll awake and start crying again, so ideally I'd like him to fall asleep in his cot...

The other day he finally fell asleep after more than 2 hours of trying, including two or three feeds, rocking, shushing, leaving him to do his own thing, singing to him etc. he then slept for half an hour!

Also in a few months I will be returning to work so won't be around in the day to feed to sleep for naps.

My DS has just turned 7mo and suddenly seems to need a lot less daytime sleep. Ie he used to have 4 naps per day, and could only stay awake for 2 hours at a time, but now he seems v happy to stay awake for three hours in the morning, and 4-5 hours in the afternoon if he has a good nap after lunch.

Is there a chance that your DS perhaps doesn't need to sleep at the same times as he used to, and that you're perhaps trying to get him to nap when he doesn;t need one (hence why he's taking so long to go down?)

Hmm that could be part of it bott. DS has had a good co-sleep this AM so will try extending the time a bit until he is clearly tired.