utter frustration

[bumblebeebzzzz]

small (7months) likes to feed himself to sleep, if we're out for naps he'll sleep in his buggy, we have a sleep routine and every two weeksish we have a day or two when he'll settle himself at night

then just when i think i've done it he goes back to needing to be fed to sleep. he's bf and won't take a bottle so night on night i'm spending an hour+ trying to get him to settle.

which is really just the beginning as he then wakes up every hour feeding for half hour, repeat process til i give up, go to bed, taking him with me. which means i now officially get no time off.

and nobody else will do. mummy every time or i'll bawl til she comes! i've tried getting daddy to put him to bed and get him when he cries at night but he just looks around for me then cries and cries and cries.

any ideas that don't involve letting him scream?

Oooo it's a toughy one! I do think a bit of sleep training is in order. Some people think the No Cry Sleep Solution is good. Haven't read that book myself.

I used another method, whereby I'd lay them down in cot, they'd cry, I'd pick them up, they'd stop. I'd then lay down again in cot and they'd cry, I'd pick them up and they'd stop, etc etc. It usually took 70 times before they'd fall asleep. Next nap time, we'd do the whole shenanigans again, but this time it would only be 50 times etc. By the 3rd day they'd finally cracked it and were sorted.

I liked this method as I didn't feel so bad, as I wasn't leaving them to cry it out. But at the same time they realised I meant business and that they'd have to accept it and go to sleep. I got this from a baby whisperer book. I actually hated most of this book but thought that this idea was good and it worked for me. Bit tiresome though for those 3 days. But it worked brilliantly with both my kids and they both go down without a peep at bedtime now.

Anyway you'll get lots of suggestions now so you can pick the one's that you feel happiest with, as it's your baby at the end of the day.

Goodluck

thank you! been doing my head in something royal and that sounds like a good suggestion, had tried that gist but given up too quickly methinks. any other ideas are still welcome as small sir is a stubborn sausage.