When DS was about 8/9mo I started the pantly pull off unlatching before he was completely asleep. On the whole that's worked well and we're very successsful now with mainly having him feed and then unlatch and just fade into sleep. He vary rarely feeds completely to sleep at all now.
Â
I read the Jay Gordon thing and as I was wondering if I was feeding when I didn't *need* to I tried to see if I could pat/shush him to sleep. Well it worked. His cot is sidecared next to my side of the bed, with a pillow in between us as he likes to roll over and 'find' something in the night, or he'll start comando crawling till he finds something. When he woke and I didn't feed him he'd start crawling over and I'd literally head him off so he's headbutting me and I'd shush and patt him. After a bit of moaning but no crying he'd go back to sleep. Now he spends most the night in his cot and just generally ends up with a head (or increasing amounts of head and torso) on the pillow between us.
Â
A few times he actually cried, so I fed him as he didn't seem as if he'd settle. I'm not in a rush to nightwean or have him STTN. I just gave this a go and as it seemed to start to work I realised I was feeding him back to sleep even though I didn't have to. So I'd like to slowly encourage him to self settle. But I'm worried that feeding when he cries could mean he starts to learn to cry for boob. But I also don't want to have him crying at night and introduce stress and noise when there wasn't any before hand.
Â
So do I carry on and generally pat and shush when he's happy to do that and still feed when he's crying for a bit and doesn't want to settle down? Or am I best being consistent and really not feeding at all?
