Sorry if this is long, main question in bold if you want to skip the extra info!
My baby is 6 weeks old and up until a few days ago she pretty much slept all the time and breastfed on demand. She fed every 2-3 hours the first few weeks and I had to wake her sometimes to feed (unfortunately never at night though!)
For the last 2 weeks she started eating ALL the time and was using feeding as a way to get to sleep. I don't think she was hungry half the time, just using me to sleep but drinking and stimulating the milk in the process. I have now realised this caused me to make too much milk and cause baby to have reflux from too much foremilk too fast. Since I realised this, after much googling, (Health visitor was more than useless) I have been only using one side to feed every 3 hours (for the last 3 days).
Miraculously, since yesterday baby is a changed person. She is actually awake some of the day now and the reflux has reduced dramatically. Now onto what I am actually asking.... how to I get baby to sleep???
Baby currently wants to suck to sleep (my boobies, but I'm trying to stop that due to the oversupply). I have used my finger and she fell asleep but I don't want her sucking my finger anymore and my husband doesn't want her using a dummy if possible. She won't suck her thumb. She does fall asleep in the car or pram, I've rocked her to sleep a couple of times including in a sling and rubbed her back to get her to sleep once.
So- without sucking, what is the best way to get her to sleep and stay asleep?
From 8am this morning she was awake until 2.30 minus a couple of cat naps. After she fell asleep feeding at 11 I kept trying to put her down to continue sleeping and she kept waking (I am trying to get her to go down once asleep so she can at night better). I tried rocking, music, bouncy chair, finger sucking, head stroking etc and each time she fell asleep I waited a little, put her down and she woke 5 mins later. Does this mean she wasn't actually properly tired as when she is tired I can move her around and she stays asleep. Finally at 2.30 I fed her and she fell asleep and since then I have laid her on my bed for 5 mins, put her in the car seat, been out and put her on pram, back in car and now back home and she has stayed asleep the whole time. This makes me think she wasn't tired enough before??
Should I stick with one method to get her to sleep or keep trying loads? I have also tried putting a small comforter on her when trying to get her to sleep today to create a sleep association. Is she too young for this?
Sorry if this rambles. I just want to find a method of getting her to sleep (not by sucking me or a dummy) so that she stays asleep.