My baby slept beautifully in his own cot until he was around 6 weeks old. He is now 3 months old and doesn't nap unless he is attached to me. I have been feeling quite stressed by this, as I stupidly decided to continue doing a college course whilst breastfeeding him and looking after my older child. I sometimes put him in the sling so that at least I can get some things done with him strapped to me, but really need to be able to put him down! I'm going to have to prioritise getting him to sleep in his cot.
I've tried putting him down in his cot at varying stages of sleep but it always results in him waking up. Even when he's in a very deep sleep, being put down doesn't immediately wake him, but it seems that the lack of security bothers him so he becomes more and more unsettled. With every thrash of the arms or loss of the dummy, he wakes more until he's fully awake again. Is he too old for swaddling now? He's quite a big baby. I did look at the sleepyhead pod thing, so he would still feel 'held', but the smaller sized one seems as though it would be outgrown almost immediately. And the bigger is incredibly expensive!
The health visitor told me not to worry about starting a bedtime routine until he's 6 months, but that seems too late to me. I'd like to do it now. He has been falling asleep on me or my husband and being transferred up to the bed when he goes up, which he often manages to stay asleep for. A few nights ago, I managed to feed him to sleep without him asking for it, and he stayed asleep. Thought I'd cracked it (I know feeding to sleep is frowned upon but I need to do something!) but the past two nights it just hasn't worked. Tried for two hours the first night before handing him to my husband to fall asleep on, and three hours last night. I fed him back to sleep twice and he was feeding for about an hour and a half in total, but still woke up within fifteen minutes of being put down.
Where should I start in trying to remedy this?