Hi there
Sorry to see you didn't have any replies to your previous thread. As I didn't have a sling addicted LO I didn't read/respond to your thread title and perhaps it was the same for others.
Certainly you can tackle all these sleep issues in one go - Tracy has examples in the BW books of totally changing routines and sleep training all in one go. The plus side is that whilst LO might totally refuse a nap (or several) because you are putting her in the cot and taking away the various props the build up of OT actually help LO to eventually go to sleep...and it's in the cot.
The less positive aspect though is that it can be very hard work and can feel like you have a screaming baby on your hands for months rather than a few hours or days. Because it can be so exhausting and emotionally draining to have LO crying and not sleeping it can lead to parents giving up which means lots of crying for no end result (eg if after an hour crying you end up feeding to sleep plus using sling, rocking and bouncing and every prop imaginable to get her to sleep - it's a lot of upset all round for no change. I'd suggest only taking on what you can really manage - whatever level of sleep training that is, if it is one cot nap per day you will still feel the benefits of having one Y time (or one to one time with your toddler) you can reasonably rely on.
other things I would think about:
- SIDS guidance is that if LO is reliant on a paci for sleep not to remove it cold turkey prior to 6 months old as this can be a greater SIDS risk. You might want to look into this before making a decision on removing the paci.
- LOs build habits per sleep and if you go all out with cot naps then in my opinion yes she will be confused when you change things up on the days you want to go out and put her back in the sling. It can either confuse her or she could well refuse to sling nap when you want her to because she becomes "addicted" to the cot naps and refuse to sleep elsewhere. You might want to think about your weekly routine and build in a morning buggy nap and afternoon cot nap for instance and do those same things 7 days per week. Once those habits are set if you change it up once, for a special occasion say, you know to expect a tricky time, possibly a CN instead of a good nap and will need to get back on track the following days.
- I'm not familiar with the "sleepy head" you mention, cot blocks and cot safe wedges can help for refluxers to allow them to sleep with their head higher.
- laying baby on their left side (during the wind down even if they sleep on their back) is helpful as it can reduce the acid coming up (the right side apparently makes it worse, I always had my DS laying the wrong way in my arms!!)
- patting can cause more discomfort for some refluxers, if you suspect this you might find rubbing more comfortable. Mine did not do well with patting but did well with a firm hand on him which I kind of rocked in a tiny but quite jiggly motion, almost a vibration if that makes sense. This sort of hands on rocking when baby is in the cot can be weaned by reduction in the same way that patting is reduced so it needn't become a new prop.
- personally I wouldn't be concerned about feeding to sleep at BT. Many refluxers find the BT feed and the DF/NF more comfortable so will feed better at those times. If it is the only time of the day LO feeds to sleep I really don't think it's a "problem" if it is not effecting the nap habits.
OK - no clear answers for you just a few thoughts. Good luck whatever you decide to go ahead with and let us know how you get on