new ..any advice?

[ripley15]

Little one is seven months old. He has always been a terrible sleeper .. got.by lbf him to sleep.
Naps on me during the day ..have to wait 20mins then put him in cot at night (seems to wake up immediately during day if I do this). But sometimes wakes as I've put him down and have to repeat whole thing. :(
I am worried about what happens when he goes to nursery plus..i ideally want to finish breastfeeding g completely
Basically has anyone got any tips on how I can sort this please? Don't know whether to stop holding him first or Give a dummy instead of boob.
Thanks for reading x PS I know this is my own fault.

Our first was like this. We had to go cold turkey on the bf to sleep. We did this about 8/9 months ish I think. My husband took a week off and put her down every night with a bottle. Hideous the first night (we don't believe in crying it out etc) so he was in with her for best part of 2 hours before she settled. However was easier every night and by night 4 or 5 bedtime took 15 minutes max! Nap times seemed to naturally improve from then and she'd nap in her cot after a bottle.

I currently have a 13 week old. I'm doing nothing differently and he's a completely different sleeper- settles easily, naps well. So don't think this is all your fault (no matter what the evil parenting books say!), I think a good part of it depends on the child themselves.

Thanks for your advice and reassurance. I'm f tm and like you didn't want to make him cry but I think any change now will cause upset. X

We also had this situation with our DD. We decided to battle bedtime before naps.

At 6 months old we did the same as the PP and my DP took time off work so he could do bedtime routine. We still EBF but I would feed our DD about an hour before she was due to go to bed and then my DP would continue the routine.

The first night she took an hour to settle, second night 40 minutes and it gradually improved to now (9 months old) where she is asleep within minutes of being put in her cot. Our DD also started sleeping through pretty much as soon as she stopped feeding to sleep. We have had the off hiccup here and there but that's to be expected.

Nap times are a different kettle of fish for for us! We have only this past week started to stop feeding to sleep. She has taken to napping in the cot but only for 25 minutes at a time so it's pretty exhausting. I'm hoping the naps will get gradually longer.

I also haven't BF since Friday morning and she actually seems a lot happier as she is less reliant on me for sleeping and comfort and is able to find it other ways if I'm not there or not in the same room (my DP or just keeping herself occupied playing).

It is doable, there may be tears, but the long term rewards are much better for everyone.