will attempting to get my 6.5 month old to sleep through result in him not being his cheerful self?

[helsbelles]

hello. My 6.5 month old, Arnold, is the most smiley happy thing and sleeps in bed with me being b/f every 2-3 hours (though he usually does 7.30pm-around 11pm ok after I've feed him to sleep, sometimes even in his cot next to my bed). But I'm tired,a do want to do some work and being single would so like to be able to go out for an evening (his dad will babysit!) but can't as otherwise I'm too tired/braindead for waking so often the rest of the night. So plan to try to put him in his own room, attempt to feed water (though how? he doesn't take bottles..) maybe try not feeding but patting or other to sleep (but so far he cries more and I give up!)...but will this result in a less happy little boy? and how long do these methods sometimes take? he eats 3 big solid meals a day and plenty of b/f milk also so he's not needing the food.

The baby whisperer says to just suddenley put your baby in a cot in his room will cause baby being scared &insecure.You need to do it very gradually.If you think for the first 6months of your ds life you have been there every waking moment & to change that really suddenely could be drastic.
You say you feed him to sleep, well that now is the only way your ds knows.You need to teach him how to get himself to sleep with no props.Im not sure how you are going to get him to feed from a bottle.Have you heard of the HEBRAMUN (mmm?spelling?)teat?
Apparently you can get them off the internet.The BW would advice them in your situation.
I would start by stopping the 11pm feed.If he is having enough between 7am and 7pm then this feed is not neccessary.
You need to be confident in what you decide to do and consistent therefore you should read up on some ways to do what you require to do just so you know exactly what you are doing.There are lots of techniques but you need to decide what you think is best.After all you know your ds well and more than anyone else.
HTH. All the best.

Well, I put my 6.5mth old in his own room after 6 mths and did CC at the same time - essential I'd say! DS was and is a fairly happy child so I don't think I did much damage. What I did was to cut out one feed at a time - first the 3.30am and then the 11pm one. As he was BF this was more practical than watering down expressed BM milk and trying to get him to take a bottle at the same time.

For DS it took a surprisingly short time (about a week) and since then he has been very good at sleeping through the night - goes for about 10.5-11hrs.

My son didn't even notice being put in his own room - so much for the Baby Whisperer. I say, you don't know until you try how your individual child will react to anything. I have never seen a child become less happy after a good night's sleep.