HELP ME PLEASE!!

[TRICKY]

I haven't had a good sleep or even more than a few hours in a single block for the past 2 months.  My 6 month old had started to sleep through and was doing so well but then started waking for feeds, I decided he must need more calories and started him on solids.  This hasn't helped.  He hasn't got any teeth yet and they don't look like they're coming through.  This is my 3rd baby and the other 2 slept fine, this one though is waking hourly- 2 hourly and completely doing my head in.  I've managed to get him to start having day sleeps, he has 1 3 hr sleep at about 10.30am and then I try for a 2nd sleep about 4.30pm which usually lasts only 20 mins. 
I've sent off a request for sleep school but that's a 4 week wait away.  I know the info is all over this site and I should just research rather than asking someone to spell it all out for me but truly, I'm just so tired.  I left my bank card in the machine and walked away from the machine today in the middle of a transaction, that's how loopy I am.
He sleeps in a cradle beside my bed, I feed him, play for 15 mins or so (including a change), sing him a song about 'sleepy time', put him in his bed, turn him over (he always sleeps on his tummy), put the dummy in (he's usually crying and lifting his torso quite high) and I tap his bottom firmly.  Problem is, once he eventually goes off to sleep, he wakes every few hours, demanding feeds, scratching at my breast.  I can't possibly let him cry in the hope he'll settle, he just doesn't.  Please please PLEASE! Someone tell me what to do.

I have 8.30am school drop off so don't get home until 9.30am and have to pick up again at 3.30pm.  My 2 yr old goes to bed at 11am when I manage to get both boys sleeping. 

I'm desperate to get this sorted, I can't cope with yet another sleepless night.
Thank you!
Nikki

[TRICKY]

This is what's happened today....

Today 6mths and 3 days

wake and bf 6.30am
activity from 7am.
breaky (banana porridge) 8.15am
drove Marley to school and Luka managed a quick sleep 8.30-9.00
9.30am bf
11am bed for 3 hrs.
2pm bf
4pm banana mashed up
activity
4.20pm sleep.
5.00 up
5.30 bf (had forgot to bf him and wondered why he was crying).
activity
7pm sweet potato and baby rice
7.30 bed… not settling.  Tim gave him 100ml formula. 
8pm he’s sleeping.

[anna*]

So first of all are you ready to stop cosleeping and stop BFing on demand overnight? Personally I would put him in his cot in his own nursery and feed ones at night only and use PUPD for all the other NWs. Does he go to sleep independently or do you have to stay with him/pat him to sleep? If it's the latter, again I'd recommend PUPD. Does he need a paci to sleep?

I'd also try tweaking your EASY. We wouldn't usually recommend letting a baby sleep for longer than 2 hrs, and 2hrs awake time is probably not enough. You could try something like

6.30am awake and BF
7.30am solids
9 or 9.30am nap (aim for 1.5-2hrs, try to resettle if he wakes early)
11am awake and BF
12pm solids
1.30pm nap (aim for 1.5-2hrs, try to resettle if he wakes early)
3pm awake and BF
4.30pm solids
5pm catnap 20mins only
6.30pm last BF
7pm asleep for the night.

[TRICKY]

Thanks so much Anna, I've now moved him into his own room and taken your suggestion  of shorter day sleeps and giving him longer than 2 hrs awake time.  This all seems to be working better.  Last night he went to bed at 8pm,  I gave him an 11pm dream feed (formula) and he woke up at 4.45am for another feed which I didn't give until 5.15am.  His night sleeps are definitely improving so far and he loves sleeping in a cot rather than his cradle and in his own room.   I'm still tweaking the daily routine but generally trying for BF first, solids 1 hr later and bed 2.5 hrs after he first wakes.  The best thing is that when he wakes at night I manage him in his bedroom and he ends up back in his cot and not in my bed on the breast.  This means that when I DO sleep, it's a better quality sleep and I'm sure the same applies to him.
Thank you, Nikki. 

[anna*]

That's a great update!! Well done!!