bedtime battle

[PreemieBlessing]

I have been sleep training my lo for a week and am at a loss, he doesn't stop crying for 1-2 hours everytime. I've played around with bedtime from 8pm to now 7pm but he gets worked up so much. He seems to want a nap around 4.30-5pm so today I'm trying to keep him up so that he is tired for bedtime. I'm so confused as my approach and routine has been consistent. Last night we had 2 hours 20mins of crying (the same as night 1) and had put him down at 7pm, anyone know what I could be doing wrong?

How old is he?

Is he having any daytime sleep?

What time does he wake?

Does he wake in the night?

He is 6.5 months, has a dreamfeed and wakes for a feed around 4-5am and sleeps till 6.30-7am. He's had about 3hour of nap, hes a catnapper but I didn't want to nap train all in one go so hes napping partly in his room and partly on my chest !!! He does cry here and there through the night but I don't go in unless its over 15mins. His last nap ended at quarter to 4

You must be very strong to be able to cope with that level of crying from a baby so young. It must b very hard.

You know that children and babies cannot self sooth in the way an adult would (ie tired, lie down, close eyes, sleep) until preschool age - so around 4 or 5 years old.

Until then and certainly through the first 12 months all babies need some form of comfort in order to get to sleep. They simply don't have the emotional brain development to go to sleep otherwise.

Some things parents use as sleep comforts include:

• Dummy for comfort sucking
• Feeding to sleep
• fingers/thumb for comfort sucking (hard to establish this young)
• Patting (being pattered or patting self)
• Rocking (being rocked or rocking own body)
• Comfort 'blankie' or muslin (can be introduced but rarely established this young)
• Special toy or teddy (again can be introduced but rarely established this young)

What does your DS do for comfort to get to sleep?