For those that have sleep trained, please help me with some advice!

[Sweetestp]

My boy is 7 months old and nights have been wild, waking anywhere from 10-15 times, last night he was wide awake in the middle of the night twice and i feed a gazillion times for him to get back to sleep!

He is EBF, with four milk feeds in the day and takes in a good amount of solids for three meals a day. His day schedule is: up at 06:30 then wake windows are typically 2,5/3/4 (last one is sometimes 5), total day sleep is 3 hours, bed time is 19:30 / 20:00.

I rock/hold him to sleep for day naps and feed him to sleep for night times. He transitions to his crib easily once fast asleep and i have been putting him down sooner, shush/patting if he is roused.

So for sleep training - i have been wondering if i should first gradually wean him off of being fed to sleep, by feeding before bath, and then rocking to sleep.. or do i just go cold turkey and start putting him in the crib and leave the room with timed check ins?

I am DREADING the crying, but i think my future self will be grateful when i dont need to work so hard to get him to sleep and if he can hopefully drop some night wakes in the near future 🤞
(i probably should have sleep trained my toddler who still struggles a ton to get to sleep at three years old!)

TIA!

@APatternGrammarI agree. But that’s not what most of the previous posters and the OP are suggesting

Agree - I was feeding around 12 times a day (not including overnight) at that age.

You’re going to get so many different opinions here - do some research on baby brain development and attachment and then baby sleep - then make up your own mind. Responsive parenting is hard especially at night but the benefits are huge. We are in a massive mental health crisis (especially with men) and many children are suffering from anxiety. It is something to bear in mind before forcing babies who have undeveloped brains to become ‘independent’

as for surviving - I know what sleep deprivation is like trust me. Look at sleep needs for babies eg my 6.5 month old only needs 12.5 hours sleep over 24 hours. I have acknowledged with him day sleep is minimal and he feeds twice at night - very normal for this age. You don’t have to sleep train at all, you definitely don’t need to let anyone cry. Love your baby, read them not the clock and shut out all the noise. Your instincts are better than anyone else for your baby.

You're equating "chaotic bedtime routines" with a responsive approach to infant sleep which is totally false.

We have had a consistent bedtime routine and never left our DC to cry alone. He sleeps through now.

In the case cited, I am equating chaotic bedtime routines to muddling through with two parents wanting different things and the DC suffering as a result. In the case of my own DD, we were fortunate that she cried for no more than 10 minutes, in the next room, over two nights, and as a newborn slept for five hours. I am quite sure that I would not have allowed the crying to continue, for my DD's sake, for longer than 10 minutes.

4 feeds a day at that age is not enough. Are you feeding on demand? Mine was probably having 6-8 feeds a day at that age, plus a couple overnight. I really think going from feed to sleep to leave to cry is too extreme. I'd work away from feeding to sleep as a first step.

I’m amazed that some people think it’s ok for a tiny baby to cry themselves to sleep