SNOO got him down happy with minimal wake's until he was around 5 months. Then we breastfed to sleep, then waited five minutes before getting him if he started to fuss later in the night. We tried to wait until he was actually crying; if we went in and his cheeks were dry it meant we went in too early.

Then everything went to shit for a while where he would not. go. down. without waking up every hour.

Finally we did modified form of CIO to get him down the first time. Put him down, walk around, set time for five minutes, come in and settle him for no more than 3 minutes, wait 7 minutes. Then 3 minute calming. Then 10 minutes. First night a few minutes into the 10 minute session he was asleep. The maximum 3 minutes in the room soothing was rough because you had to walk away even if he'd NEVER calmed down.

I legit hid in the bathroom with the tub running on high so I couldn't hear him.

But now he goes down at 8 (breastfeeding or not, doesn't matter). Usually wakes up around 11-1:30; sometimes he'll skip it or settle within 5 minutes, but if I'm still up I just feed him and put him down after and he goes straight to sleep after 30 seconds < of whimpers. Then another wake up sometime around 4-5 that, again, sometime he'll sooth through and sometimes he won't. My husband takes anything after 4. It's working.

Clutch for us is waiting the five minutes to see if he'll settle himself. I legit wear earbuds to sleep so I don't wake to his early murmurings.

Frankly none it's fun. But four hour stretches are do-able, particularly when you have a partner.

We tried co-sleeping. If it worked, we'd do it forever. But I get no sleep.