I fed both my girls to sleep for a long time. When I had enough and it wasn't that effective anymore I started feeding until they were sleepy and then cuddling, rocking to sleep. Once I got them used to being cuddled to sleep I started putting them in the cot almost asleep but still awake and rubbed their tummy or patting their back, then I slowly stopped that and now they both go to sleep beautifully on their own. sometimes they need an extra cuddle or like me to sit with them, but not regularly.
You can and will get there! One thing I read in a book, was it doesn't matter if one night it's not working , it's ok to go back to cuddling or feeding to sleep, and then start again the next sleep. It's not failing or going backwards, it's all progress.
I was thinking about posting a similar thread as im working on this with DD. She is 27 months old, and i have always fed her to sleep. for her day sleep she falls asleep on me and i put her in her bed asleep. For the night sleep i lay next to her in her bed (she is in a big bed) and feed her but she rarly falls asleep while she is feeding anymore, i normally just lay next to her till she falls asleep.
Im 23 pregnant and starting to find it hard to lay on the bed and get up quietly after she is asleep as im getting quite big so im trying to change it a bit. Last night i fed her in her chair and put her in her bed and just sat next to the bed holding her hand till she was asleep, took ages though!! Il keep doing this till she goes to sleep better then il start sitting in the chair and slowly get closer to the door. im sure it will take months...hence whyi started now, so hopfully by the time the next baby arrives she will be doing it on her own. Il start to work on the day sleep when the night sleep is better.
She no longer feeds thought the night, i just told her that she was a big girl and didnt need booby in the night, for a week or two she would still wake up and id just give her a water and lay with her, we had a few bad nights but lastnight was the first night she woke up over night for about three weeks. And she told me its becasue she woke up and i wasnt sitting by the bed anymore so its just the change in the night routine thats makeing her wake up.
Like a PP said, i think you just have to decided on a way, like patting etc and stick with it, it will probably get worse before it gets better. good luck
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