Sleep training an active 8 month old.

[Katiejoy86]

Help! I've got into the bad habit of rocking my 8 month old in a bouncer seat for naps and so he'll only sleep 45mins at a time. At night he has a regular routine and gets to sleep after a song and some patting in the cot but still wakes in the night at least twice and doesn't know how to get back to sleep himself.

I have an extra problem in that he is very active and always ends up on all fours in the cot and doesn't seem to know how to roll back down or just settle on his stomach from that position. If I leave him he always ends up crawling and hitting his head on the cot.

I know I've set myself up by not changing this habit sooner but I really don't know which method will work with him. Any suggestions are welcome!

Sounds just like my dd who is of similar age! I had written umpteen posts asking for help too. We are currently doing gradual retreat and are 2 weeks in-huge improvements.
Now at the stage where we leave room once dd in cot and obly go back in if she properly cries/gets upset. While we were at the sit by the cot stage we would put a hand through the bars if she was on all fours and pat the mattress and say "lie down" until she did. Then "good girl". Another favourite phrase is "it's sleepy time".

We first established a solid bedtime routine and also worked on stopping night feeds. I think these have both really helped with being consistent with whatever sleep training we decided to do. She doesn't go to sleep all by herself everytime but I have seen her do it so she's on the road to learning how to x