FTM, LO will be 6 mo this week and she’s exclusively breastfed. Her feed to sleep association is reallyyy bad. And it’s honestly not even a *feed* — it’s wanting my boob for comfort in order to fall asleep. This is the only way she will fall asleep. She sleeps from 7pm-4:30am most nights (does not routinely fall asleep independently but has done it a few times. She also is able to put herself back to sleep in the middle of the night, as she’s done this many times). But lately at the 4:30am wake-up, I’ve tried giving her 5-10 min to settle and when that fails, I go in for 15-20 seconds; shushing, patting, reassuring with the same phrase, pick up/put down. Husband has also tried all of these as well. But she escalates within seconds and ends up wailing and gagging until I give in and put her on my boob to get her back to sleep. She isn’t feeding when she’s on my boob either at this wake-up; it’s solely for comfort to fall back asleep.
All that to say- I don’t know what to do to help her learn this skill of falling asleep independently when every time she gets so worked up to the point that she’s gagging crying. This also happens when I try putting her down awake at bedtime. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
ETA: She has never taken a pacifier, which is bonkers to me since her sucking association is so intense