need to stop these bad habits!

[MrsDavies]

hi all, I have an 18 week old DS and I am trying to break our bad sleep habits! I BF with 1 bottle of formula as his dream feed. I'm finding it hard to get him to nap in the day, and if he does nap its only for 30mins or so in the morning and 45 (if I'm lucky) in the afternoon, he also feeds to sleep and sleeps in my arms. if I lay him down in his Moses basket he just Wakes and cries instantly. I got the baby whisperer book and tried the p.u.p.d method today for the first time for the morning nap - epic fail.he just got hysterical when I picked him up and tried to settle him before putting him down and I eventually gave in and gave him the boob! he then fell asleep in less than a minute and stayed asleep in his basket for 20 minutes then woke and wouldn't get him back of to sleep.

basically I want to know, anyone who tried the p.u.p.d method and had success - did you baby cry hysterically and if so what did you do?

is there anything else I can do apart from the p.u.p.d method to get him sleeping in his basket without needing to be fed to sleep?

night sleep again he needs to be fed to sleep and then settled a few times before staying asleep, wakes twice to be fed through the night and again needs to be settled by rocking.

these aren't major issues right now, but I don't want to be having these issues with a 1 year old, so want to nip it in the bud!

any advice welcome

Tried PU/PD with 18 week wee man last week. Fed till drowsy, put in cot. Had ten mins of tired crying then he just got hysterical. Kept going for 45 min total but he was more up than down so gave up. If he was going to go to sleep it would have only been from sheer exhaustion which seems to defeat point to me. So not tried again.

I am ebf and feed to sleep at bedtime and through night, am trying Pantley's gradual withdrawal method. Wee man not sound asleep on boob at bedtime and through night he pulls of himself almost asleep then has a wiggle and settles.

We have seen some improvement from waking every 45 min and now it's more like every couple hours.

I think getting him to nap more helped - he's only awake 90min between naps. Using pram and sling. 3 or 4 of 45 min, sometimes on one hel will do 90 (just in sling).

I have converted cotbed into side sleeper to make my nights easier and to get him happy in there. Hoping with time he'll just need a hand to settle and not a feed and he'll gradually learn to settle him self in there.

From having read these threads at lot it seems you either go for gradual approach or CIO/Cc - think which prob depends on baby's temperament and yours!

thanks, nice to know I'm not the only one

I wouldn't worry about supposed bad habits. It's just what your baby needs now. As your ds develops he will change in his own time.

My ds is almost 8 months. He's never been a great sleeper and when younger I couldn't get him to nap other than on me or in the pram and he was always fed to sleep. About 2 months ago he started to have naps in the cot. I didn't do anything in particular. He gradually became more obviously tired and in need of a nap and would stay asleep once I transferred him after feeding to sleep. He's started to self settle too - not always but sometimes. This is gradually increasing and often when he's very visibly tired but won't fall asleep feeding. When this happens I can now pop him in the cot, he'll grizzle slightly then fall asleep. At least I know he can do it and it's happening more frequently.

Agree with Brugmansia. DD was exactly the same. It won't last for ever. You might not think so right now (I certainly didn't at the time) but you WILL miss these times. I wish I had just embraced the fact that dd was a velcro baby and had not worried about bad habits that would last forever.
In the meantime: pram walks were a good way to get her to sleep without feeding - especially if there is someone to do this for you, then you can have a rest or do some jobs etc.

thanks both! I know I do secretly enjoy my sleepy cuddles