Has this approach worked for anyone?

[Muse84]

I'll try to keep this short!

4.5 months EBF, waking every 2h at night (started suddenly at 16wks)

Daytime naps have very recently started to lengthen from about 30 mins. Yes there are a number of "crutches" employed but there's a wide variety and he'll go to sleep in a number of circumstances (eg in bed with me or in pram in house with white noise- no BFing before pram sleeps). I was getting myself worked up before now as I wanted that "perfect" situation where I'd place him in cot and he'd sleep in the day! And we were spending more time trying to nap (and crying about it) than napping! So I've made my peace with things now and am very happy that he sleeps in many different situations
(and places), and will go to sleep after 10-60 seconds max. Feeling very lucky.

But nighttime- where he sleeps in next2me.... He goes down at about 6-7, and yes I feed him to sleep. Thinking about slowly gradually stopping this, to increase time between end of feed and sleep.

We go to bed a couple of hours later. Right now he'll wake every couple of hours from 11pm. I generally feed at 12,3,5....obviously would love to remove 3am feed!

When he cries in between these very approximate feed times, I put Ewan on, pat him a couple of times and that's it. Sometimes it's just Ewan. Because he's not seriously crying (more moany), I know he's ok... And he'll be back to sleep again in 1-2mins. I'm wondering therefore whether BFing isn't so much of a crutch cause he can sleep without.

ANYWAY! My point is...will this ignoring of in between cries eventually lead to him recognising the feeding pattern (which I then hope to slowly adjust over time), or am I now in a permanent pattern of ignore,feed,ignore,feed etc. In other words, do I have to be more proactive with the nighttime stuff?

Sorry, turns out this was not a brief post

Trying to (and succeeding!) settle baby without feeding is a really good habit.

Rather than having by-the-clock time frames you work to, I would try to resettle without feeding at every wake up. You may well be suprised how long he can hold between feeds.

I had a 10m/1h approximation I worked to.

So when baby wakes, always give at least 10 mins to resetting baby without feeding (I used a dummy, I'd highly recommend it). A good 8/10 times baby round be back your sleep within 10m. If not settling after 10m, I'd feed.

Then if baby was resettled back to sleep but wakes again within 1h of last waking, I wouldn't bother with the resettle, I'd just feed. But if the next wake up is more than 1h from the last resettle, I'd resettle again.

It basically gives baby a predictable routine of events that happens every time. Over time the resettles get easier and less frequent.

That's so helpful and sounds sensible- I think I'll give it a go! Thank you

It worked last night!!! I'll try again tonight before getting too excited