I'm feeding right now and don't have the book within reach but I was reading the portion for 6-8 month olds. What I do is this:
(keep in mind my babies tummy sleep)
I lay them down and say to them "time for sleep", then lay my hand on their back for a second or two. Either they seem to settle right in to the mattress to sleep or they fuss a bit. If they fuss I pick them up and roll them into me so they are in a lying down position now facing me (b/c again, they are on their tummies in the crib). I tell them again "time for sleep" and kiss them (because who can resist that sweet soft temple anyway
). If they are just fussing and sound like they might calm within 20sec or so I hold them till that point and then immediately lie them back down (sorta unroll them onto their tummies again) and put my hand on their back for as long as I feel they might need (Tracy suggests doing this till they are asleep but I feel if they are calmly lying there and continue to after I remove my hand then I let them get to sleep on their own).
Now if they don't settle when I pick them up I say/do the same thing but lie them right back down still crying. Sometimes they'll settle again once put down - because they really do want to lie down so picking them up is not really what they wanted. If once laid back down, they don't settle I do it all again. Eventually they seem to get that it's time to sleep and work at settling themselves. I don't rub or pat their backs at all. I do it on my own because dh can't stick with it over and over, he starts to feel they need something else like a pat or a rub or to roll over and stare at him for a bit ?? (yeah - that's a real sleep promoter there!
)
Sometimes I also just talk calmly to them while they lay down to see if that helps too - with my hand on their back I'll say "time for sleep" instead of picking them up. It either seems to help right off or it doesn't.
Biggest point I think is to just be determined to stick with it no matter how long it takes. I was really glad the first long session was at the 11pm wakeup because I didn't feed at this wakeup anyway so no need to second guess their need at that time. Then they slept right through till morning so the next night I knew for sure, they'd proven to me, they didn't need to feed in the night - just wanted the suckling.
Remember all the difficulty getting them to bed at night? That's gone, they go to sleep so easily now. Usually a pu for Hannah but it's so much easier than patting for the 40-60 minutes that was happening. The patting really did seem to start stimulating her too much.
Traci if Cole's eating so well with solids and nursing too, being a good healthy weight I really would feel confident that he can drop this night feed - it's just habit. K&H are just 14lbs or so and not really eating solids enough to make a difference AND since starting this I've actually dropped an evening feed. They were getting 5 feeds (not counting middle of the night feedings), I was clustering in a 5.15pm ish feed and then a 7pm feed. Well I changed that to just one 6.30pm feed and now no night feedings and they're doing it wonderfully!!!
It's tough I think when things are 'tolerable' right, because it may be worse before better for a day or maybe two... for me it couldn't have gotten any worse. I was so motivated to be exhausted for a few more days if it meant starting to actually get sleep. And I read in the book that bad sleep habits at 6months only progress and it's harder to break habits at a year (makes sense right? if 6months is harder than 3months then 12months is gonna be a bear compared to 6months).
I'm gonna say it again. Honestly. IF there's anything that's going to shake your confidence, make you wonder if they aren't ready, make you question whether or not you can make it through then work these things out in your mind before you start because if you start half or three quarter hearted and then give in you've caused both of you stress only to start back at square one.
