My 5.5 month old is taking hours to go down in the evening despite being tired as she continuously wants to suck.
She is feeding at times but then slows down/nods off but doesn't properly 'feed to sleep' (which I really wouldn't mind right now!) When she appears to have stopped sucking I wait a while and put her down but she wakes straight away crying inconsolably until my nipple is back in her mouth. I have to repeat this for up to 2 hours+ until she eventually falls asleep exhausted. Myself and my husband have tried rocking/bottles/walking her in pram/white noise/shush pat/dummies/comforters but nothing seems to work. My husband has also tried taking her out for a walk in a carrier for varying lengths of time up to 2 hours but she still wakes up as soon as she is put down!
The room is dark and quiet and I take her up there after a bath. We have a 2 year old son too so bath time can be a bit chaotic but we are generally aiming to get them both down for 7pm. She doesn't really have a fixed daytime routine (again partly due to the 2year old) and currently mainly cat naps 3-4x a day for around 30mins. I can sometimes get her down into the crib more easily in the daytime with feeding but the evenings are now driving me mad and I am desparate to get some me time back.
Does anyone have any suggestions to help her learn to go down earlier in the evening/self-settle? I am not completely against controlled crying etc but concerned she might still be a bit young for this? TIA