Pick up/put down instead of feeding to sleep

[gbee99]

My LO is just over 5 months old and I'm finding bedtime increasingly difficult. I've been feeding to sleep, (routine is bath, story, feed to sleep or maybe rocking to sleep if necessary, bed), but lately it's a bit hit and miss whether my baby falls asleep, and increasingly I've ended up rocking, sometimes the whole thing has taken 2 or 3 hours. So I'm now dreading bedtiime, so I think it's time to try some gentle sleep training and PUPD feels like a good approach. However, I'm not sure how I change from feeding to sleep to this? As in the times where she does fall asleep feeding, should I rouse her before putting her in her cot? I did wonder whether I should try this with daytime naps first. I suppose I'm most worried about making things more confusing than they need to be for my LO.

The idea would be that you dont feed anywhere near sleep time. So for daytime naps, feed baby upon waking up rather than when going to sleep. At bedtime do the feed before bedtime routine (before bath), not at the end.

Then baby goes into the cot fully awake as your start point.

I know a lot of people are against this but sending baby to bed with a bottle is always an option. Or like my little one has always sucked the tassels on his blanket which sends him straights to sleep. It just means getting them out of this routine when they get a bit bigger. Does your little one have any comforters? ( blanket etc... )

My baby feeds to sleep and I gently rouse him so he stirs awake a little when I put him down. I also use a Ewan the sheep as a sleep cue and use that at nap times too which has helped

@FATEdestiny Ah I see, that's helpful to know about the order of things should be. But also useful to know about the gentle rousing approach you use @user1493413286

@Freckleyou20 My LO doesn't have any comforters yet, but she has started to comfort herself sometimes by chewing on her sleeve, so I'm guessing that might help when I start.

I think it will help wonders :) My little one was 5 months when he started to be put down to bed and left to fall asleep on his own but he'd figured out how to crawl at the same time and just wanted to crawl around the cot lol and since he was 7 months he figured out how to stand up in his cot and all he wants to do is that. Honestly, if it wasn't for his comfort blanket I'd be lost. I do think a lot of the time they just want to feel ' secure ' but learning to use an item to comfort themselves is such a big thing to figure out for them. Hope when she does find her comfort thing it works wonders for you :)

100% get them attached to a comforter (and then buy three more and use them interchangeably).

We also did gentle rousing upon laying down, and jiggling the cot gently if she got upset - picking her up woke her fully and made her angry.

You’ll figure out a way that works for you.

P.S. My toddler is currently putting herself to sleep by chanting ‘chocolate cake, seven, POO’ repeatedly and lobbing her comforter around the cot. They grow out of feed to sleep pretty quickly, so don’t worry!

I fed on waking throughout the day and at bedtime fed until drowsy but not actually asleep. Daytime naps I learnt sleep cues from my babies and put them down tired. We did have an established routine through the day, which may have helped. Once teeth were through I gave up the feed until drowsy and fed before teeth cleaning and settling in the cot. On the whole my babies were quite flexible and making changes to their day didn’t cause problems, and if something goes wrong, tweak it and try again tomorrow!