Morning all, so sorry to hear about your bad nights.
Well the waking to sleep thing worked until I went to bed (ain't that always the way?). He woke up at 10.50, wouldn't go down without milk so I BF'd him and - woops, he fell asleep on the breast. Oh well. I woke up 5 mins before my next alarm, at 1.40am, but was in such a daze I didn't know what I was meant to be doing and fell promptly asleep. So then DS woke around 3.30 - actually, his intervals are increasing, which is a small mercy. But he woke again somewhere around 5, and yet again in my hazy daze I did what I didn't mean to do - put him straight in bed with us and BF'd him. Interestingly he didn't fall asleep on the breast but put himself to sleep afterwards, all by himself. He's been doing that a lot lately whilst in bed with me, the little cuticle.
Meg - how did you work out your ncss plan to wean your ds off BFing to sleep? I did it a millimetre-sized step at a time, using soothing music as a transitional object - as follows:
Step 1: I'd BF him to sleep every day for about 2/3 days with gentle music playing each time so that he built association btw music and falling asleep (btw doesn't have to be same music otherwise you go mental after about 3 days!).
Step 2: I followed Liz Pantley's suggestion of removing him from the breast at the point when he started taking breaks from swallowing. If he protested for more than about 5 seconds I'd put him back and then repeat after 30 seconds. Eventually he'd fall asleep. I followed this for about 5-7 days.
Step 3: I'd BF him (unswaddled - yes! I'm still swaddling a 7.5 month old, I know I shouldn't...!) in bedroom with curtains open and music playing, then swaddle and close curtains, whilst sitting quietly with the music still playing. No BF at this point - he'd usually go to sleep. But if he protested for more than about 30 secs I'd BF him as per step 2.
I kept breaking it down little by little until eventually we got to where we are now. If he's overtired he finds it harder to fall asleep 'alone' - with me standing by the cot; in which case I'll go back up one step at a time as necessary. He also falls asleep nowadays within 5-10 mins, which is a bloody miracle!
Btw anyone have any ideas how to wean a baby off being swaddled for every nap + sleep? He's just too big for this now, surely!