6 month old bad sleep habits

[Blanch7474]

Hi all! My 6 month old has never had a bed time routine due to a kidney condition resulting in not being able to bathe him (he has a nephrostomy bag), and we have spent weeks at a time in hospital pretty much every month since he was born.
The only way we have ever managed to get him to sleep is by having him on his baby beanbag on our lap and swaying him side to side. Once asleep we transfer him to the cot. The issue is this is now the only way to get him off, and he still wakes a lot at night; Which means back on the beanbag and start again.

He is having his last op tomorrow to finally correct his kidneys and the bag will be off (finally!). Once he is healed we need to start a bed time routine and somehow get him off the beanbag.

Looking for advice on how to get him in his cot at night without needing to swing him on the beanbag. My partner wants to CIO but I just don't want to do this for so many reasons.

Also anyone started a bedtime routine later on and how did you manage this?

Thanks in advance - from a nervous first time mum.

Aw little guy, hope his op goes okay tomorrow.

I wouldn’t beat yourself up thinking you have a bad habit. Sometimes you just need to do what you can to survive and what’s best for you and your family.

Personally, I would never do cry it out. I just couldn’t bear it, especially after all this time. But I wonder if the classic, bath, bottle (or feed) then bed would work for him? Now he can have baths? You could rock him to sleep in your arms then transfer once asleep?

I read The Baby Sleep Guide by Stephanie Modell when mine was around this age.

I like that she gives options from completely gentle no cry through to full cry it out and I found a level we were comfortable with which worked for us.

Worth a read

My baby had health issues and the early days were all about dressings, wound care, etc. There was nicu, ops, no bath/bed possiblity.

To be honest, once we escaped Nicu, he slept in a wee snuzpod right by me and I just lifted and fed him to sleep. He had a very small stomach and needed very frequent small feeds, so this suited.

Then we moved on to co-sleeping and did it for 5 years. It was grand for me, I was just happy I was able to meet his needs for comfort and enjoyed the bonding time.

I gave up work for 3 years though, so I realise I was really lucky to have been able to. Plus, I know lots of people would not choose co-sleeping. Though, I probably would not have either if it were not the only way I could cope with the constant feeding.