In a sleep rut with 18 month old. Please help

[Stargirl2707]

My little boy has always been one to wake frequently throughout the night since birth. Always!
For this reason I started cosleeping as it was easier to manage the frequent wake ups and settle him back down with me also working full time. He starts the night in his bed. I feed, the rock/cuddle until asleep then place in cot. He comes into my bed with me for the night after his first waking.
But we are in a rut and I have no idea how to get out of it. I breastfeed before bed still and also when he wakes in night. I’m sure this is now just for comfort majority of the time as it helps him to fall asleep.
We’d had 5 nights recently where he’s only woken up twice in the night which is monumental for me!! So I decided over Easter I’d try and get him to sleep in his bed throughout the night by putting him back in each time he woke up.
But suddenly we’re back to 2-hourly wake ups before I’ve even had chance to try!

Please help!

How do I improve his sleep? How do I manage the transition back to his own bed? How do I start reducing night feeds? I’ve no idea what to do!!!!x

If you want him sleeping in the cot then he needs to be going from being fully awake to fully asleep all within the cot.

So feeding him to sleep or cuddling him to sleep and putting him down already asleep or nearly asleep is what is stopping independant sleep from happening.

As to how to achieve that, there are dozens if different sleep training methods, but all have this same outcome at their heart. All aim to get baby settling to sleep in the cot.

There are gentle methods, these take much longer to hard to independant sleep (several months or even years).

Or there are harsh methods, which are very distressing but see independant sleep much quicker (within a week).

And everything in between.

So really it comes down to you deciding
(a) how urgently you feel you need baby independently sleeping
(b) what level of distress (from baby and you) ypu can cope with to achieve this.