Miserable evening of pick up put down

[ElleBellyBeeblebrox]

DS is seven months, and has always been a nightmare sleeper, usually breastfed or rocked to sleep. The last few months have got worse and worse, now spending most of the night in our bed feeding on and off to sleep all night. I'm so tired and miserable I'm short tempered and a shouty horrible mummy to dd who is 4. DP works 6 days a week and not much help at night. Decided I can't carry on like this, and to try pu/pd a day or two ago, for daytime naps in cot, and evening sleep.
I thought yesterday things were slowly improving, but tonight took about two hours :( I hate seeing him upset and feeling like it's my fault for getting into such crappy sleep habits. Anyone any success with this? Need a morale boost! Or a magic wand. Thanks in advance.

No magic wand I'm afraid. Dd has always been terrible to get to sleep. I just wanted to say you are doing a great job and give you these as a morale boost!
Hope you can enjoy the rest of your evening.

In same boat here so no magic wand but just wanted to send you hugs and support. You have nothing to feel bad about, babies do cry, but as long as they know they're safe and loved that's the main thing.

Thankyou both that's made me feel a bit better already :)

My mum gave me a lovely bit of advice when ds1 was small and crying "he's crying because he's tired and doesn't know how to get to sleep".

Teaching your child how to get to sleep is a skill for them. It's not always easy to do but try and keep that in mind - you're doing it for their benefit and not to be mean.

Both of mine HATED pu/pud btw. Much better with shhh pat, leave, go back in and more shhhh pat. Feed until drowsy and then put them down slightly awake. Also a big fan of comforters in our household! They snuffle them in their face!

Thankyou littlemilla. That's what I'm trying to tell myself, that it's for his benefit. I wouldn't be able to do cc or cio so thought I'd give this a try, at least I'm cuddling him when he's upset. I did feed him in the middle but didn't let him fall asleep on boob like usual.

Baby steps Elle, honestly. Don't try and do it all at once.

And don't feel disheartened when you feel like it's going backwards! Just take it one sleep at a time and keep on trying.

I also think it's common to see progress and then a massive step back - that was case when I was teaching DD to self-settle. Went well for two night then she massively protested with hysterics at bedtime for a couple of nights. I just fed her to sleep those nights and tried again the night after and progress continued well from there.

Thanks city, I'm not being too rigid about it, did feed him to sleep in the night. I'm just confused if I'm doing it right or being consistent enough. Not looking forward to tonight!

I also found pu/pd didnt' work and I did a kind of sshh-pat (more like rubbing her tummy or shoulder while saying the same phrase in a soft voice). Picking her up made her agitated and would turn grizzling into full-blown crying.

You could also try just tacking naps OR nights to start with. I just focused on bedtime and let naps run their own course.

I think that'd be better, am trying to do naps and nights which is making me feel a bit frazzled! Will perhaps concentrate on naps and hope the nights follow. Thankyou :)

With my DS I tackled naps first. Nights did eventually follow. I found it easier to do it in the day rather than at night.