Help!

[BellaElla99]

I have a 15 month old who will NOT sleep without me. He wakes up as soon as I move. This makes it so hard to get ready for work, have a shower before bed or genuinely just have any ‘me’ time. I need to be able to just put him in bed but it doesn’t work. He has no idea how to self soothe. He is still breastfed. He naps fine in nursery apparently but with me, he needs to breastfeed to sleep and then continues to suckle all night near enough. He co-sleeps as I just couldn’t cope with the continuous breaks of sleep. Please help me, has anybody had the same? What did you do?

It sounds like you need to sleep train. I notice your use of the word need - "I need to be able to just put him in bed". The gentle routes will start making progress towards that independence, but wont get you there anytime soon and if you need that change then you likely need it soon (?).

Are you feeling ready to sleep train? It will mean night weaning and seperating feeding and sleeping. It would probably be best to get baby into a cot too. It will create a lot of distress for baby (and probably you and your partner too). But within a few weeks you should have a much more independent sleeper on your hands.

It's important you can cope with that, because half-ass methods won't work. You have to commit to sleep training and be prepared to see it though, otherwise you create tons of distress and confusion for no reason.

If you're not ready for that, then that's fine. Maybe look at other ways to cope with the situation as it is, rather than trying to change it too quickly.