Hard to put to sleep

Hi mummies. Since newborn i've been cradling and patting him to sleep because that was the only way we could make him sleep. He doesn't want to be put down and be patted. It goes on until he was about 5 months old. He started to get heavier and my arms couldn't take it anymore - the cradling, swaying. So my husband told me to put him in the yao lan (baby hammock) to keep me sane (i cried badly when it was super difficult to put him to sleep). Now he's 7MO and when its time to sleep, he doesn't want to be cradled anymore, he will fuss and push himself as hard as he can away from me and wants to sit upright on my arms. But he's already very sleepy. He will only sleep in the yao lan.. i may have let him be to dependent on the hammock.. any mummies faced this before? How do i avoid him being too dependent on the hammock, how do i train him to fall asleep on his own.. ?

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At first it was a mental battle with my LO and I where my LO display that he clearly doesn’t wants to sleep but I insist on patting him, rocking and cradling him just to get him to sleep on the dot (by 9:30pm) until he got very frustrated and I got seriously tired. So I tell myself forget it, the more I try, the more awake he is. So I just leave him on his bed, let him wriggle, let him fidget and squeals all he wants, until when he starting to feel tired then he will just crank and cry a little, I will then approach him and start patting and sing to him (I will not try to pick him up). On good days, once I started patting he can fall asleep between 10-15mins. On real bad days, after trying to pat him for 30mins he will still continue to cry then I will just carry and hug him to make him feel safe, then he will slowly fell asleep. My way of doing is more of facilitating him to sleep than training him to sleep, which imo either works fine and most impt it suits both of you and LO. If you LO is really dependent on yaolan, you can roll a long blanket and just surround or tuck by his side so he feel more secure. I have been doing that for my LO since day 1 until now he is 7mo.

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