Pick up / put down method - should I even bother?!

[PeachFinch]

So a bit of background: my 7 month old has never been a great sleeper. During the day, she’ll cat nap for 30 mins maybe 3x a day if I’m lucky, but more often she’ll have maybe an hour sleep most days. At night she wakes up very frequently, every hour most nights although every now and then she’ll get a two-three hour solid stretch.
From what I can gather yes this is very normal for babies but also baby could be chronically overtired, this makes sense to me as she never wakes up happy. I follow appropriate wake windows as best as I can but she just can’t seem to sleep long stretches.
So tonight I tried the pick up put down method, when I first put her down she seemed content for five mins and was happily babbling away. Then the crying starts and I pick up put down pretty continuously for 30 mins and EVERY time I put down she really cries straight away. Nothing helps to soothe and when I pick her up she starts to fall asleep instantly which defeats the whole point of this as the aim is to self soothe in the cot.
Anyone gone through this and have any advice? What do you do if your baby cries the instant you put down? Surely you can’t be in perpetual pick up put down with crying, this just seems like cry it out method? Grateful for any advice - cheers

Blimey this shows how babies can be so different , my three DC slept 7-8 hours at 8 weeks and 12 hours at 12 weeks.

Same for me with my 9 month old who was fed to sleep til that point.

Fair play to the parents willing to wait years to sleep through but it wouldn't have worked for me. After about 9 months I was ready for all of mine to mostly sleep.

Oh my gosh huge respect to you, I honestly couldn’t cope

I meant to quote this to @MamaineI don’t know what I’m doing here lol 😊

I’m going to try tomorrow but I have a feeling it will take us a lot longer as last time she cried instantly every time I put her down and wouldn’t sleep. How long are you supposed to go through pick up put down if baby doesn’t sleep? I’m trying to be positive but I reckon she will cry and cry and not sleep and then do I just try again at next nap time after X amount of time or keep going? I have no idea

I'd start with bedtime when she's really tired rather than nap time.

I found ‘the beyond sleeptraining project’ really helpful to understand normal infant sleep - really frustrating to come to terms with if you have a poor sleeper or limpet baby 🙈 but helpful to understand the reasons and that whatever all the current trainers, gurus etc try and tell you, there’s not a lot you can do but try and make sleep as bearable and manageable as you can with babies until they start to get older and sleep better

Yes, everywhere I read it said try at bedtime but I knew that wouldn’t work for me and I always did the first nap of the day so baby wasn’t overtired at bedtime, it probably took a few extra days to improve night sleep but it was worth it to me! I did miss a couple of days when he was especially upset at being put down but after the first 2 times he fell asleep himself it got so much easier, and it took around 35 mins the first couple of times but I stopped for a few minutes if he got really upset to calm him properly instead of setting him down the second he stopped crying, and we also had a musical light up toy playing which helped distract him I think
dont feel like you have to do it perfectly from day one, and if it’s not feeling right for you it’s okay to take a break
i hope it goes well for you!