You know what is best for your baby, but you might want to start trying to teach him to fall asleep on his own now. I also rocked ds to sleep and it was lovely for the first 5 months, but then it became more and more difficult, he would wake up as soon as I set him down and he would wake many times during the night because he had never learned to settle himself. I ended up doing controlled crying it out when he was 6 months old and it really made all of our lives better. He did cry for the first few nights but now sleeps so much better. He still wakes up 2x per night for a feed but just nurses and goes straight back to bed. That being said, 4 mos is awfully young to cio, and it sounds like you are a bit horrified by the idea of it, so maybe you could try pat & shush or some other method of teaching the baby to fall asleep on his own. My ped also said I should drop the night feeds (ds is 9 mos old) but because we are doing blw I want to make sure he is getting enough milk and honestly don't mind the night feeds as long as he doesn't make a fuss. All that to say, every baby is different, do what feels right for you and yours :-)
are you bf-ing? until 9m+ its not uncommon for a baby to need 1-2 feeds a night.
what's the obsession with STTN (sleeping through the night)? every baby is different ...
as far as dreamfeeds are concerned I am totally against them - when a baby is sleeping they are asleep! imagine someone force feeding you when you are asleep!! I don't mean to sound harsh ... I tried it once and I felt so awful - DD was a few weeks old and she looked at me with such horror and was unsettled all night. Also I think it creates a bad association to eating because they "should" as opposed to when they need it. Also you could be waking them up from a deep sleep and creating a habit which is counter productive.
DD has never been rocked or swaddled so putting her down after a feed is literally a kiss on her head and plop into bed ... she then decides when to go to sleep which is usually within 2-10mins ... no tears ever.
The best book on this is Healthy Sleep Habit Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth...
<em>edited by beigey on 02/01/2011</em>
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