Sleep help!

[rcreddick]

DS is 6 1/2 months old.
 
He was colicky and had fluid on his ears from birth until 3 months so we got in a terrible habit of standing and swaying him to sleep because it was the ONLY thing that helped.
 
He only takes 30 minute naps during the day and is a terrible sleeper at night.
 
Here is an example of yesterday:
 
7:30 - awake
 
8:30 - BF
 
9:30 - solids
 
10:30-11 nap (took a half hour of swaying, laying down, swaying, laying down before getting him to sleep)
 
11:15 - BF
 
1:30-2 nap (again: sway, lay down, sway lay down)
 
2:15 - BF
 
4-4:30 nap
 
5 - BF
5:45 - solids
 
6:45 - BF, went right to sleep.
 
Then he woke up every 20-30 minutes until midnight.
 
Finally slept from midnight - 2:30. then BF
 
Slept from 2:45 - 5:30 (cried, gave binky)
 
6:30 - BF in bed with me and slept until 7:30
 
When he wakes up he was screaming. I do not pick him up, usually give it a few minutes and then give his binky back.
 
I am at a loss and I'm so sleep deprived.
 
I am sure the habit of swaying him to sleep doesn't help, but he will not let me lay him down and I cannot emotionally/mentally handle CIO.
 
This has been a very typical night schedule for him in the past month. I do not think he is teething yet.
 
With naptime - he usually goes down ok with me swaying him (or on the rare occasion he will put himself to sleep) but at EXACTLY 30 minutes he is awake....usually screaming. He very rarely wakes up happy. So I know he has got to be overtired/overstimulated but I don't know what to do.
 
He generally doesn't like the car, so if we have to travel somewhere and he's tired it is a nightmare. :-(
 
please help.

I have tried the wake to sleep and I'm either not doing it at the right time or it doesn't work for him. He wakes up between 30-35 minutes into a nap so I've tried wake to sleep at 30 min and 25. He stirs but still wakes up at 30 min.

[Ima shel Alon]

I cannot emotionally/mentally handle CIO.

I am glad to hear that. We are very much against CIO and CC here:
Research on why 'cry it out' and 'controlled crying' is NOT recommended!
Cry it out (CIO): 10 reasons why it is not for us

Are there any signs of discomfort? Reflux?
The way I see it there are a few issues: there is that he is not falling asleep interdependently, his A times are not consistent and he short naps. This is all, IMO, interconnected.
If you look at the last sample on this page: chronological EASY samples, 4-6 months you'd see that your first A time is pretty much age appropriate, but could be slightly too high for him if he accumulated OT. What I would do if it was me (and it was me a year and a half ago ) I would try and work out the right A for him - I would do this by reducing the A to 2:45h and stick to that A no matter what. This is a slightly short A for his age, so we are going to offer him an opportunity to sleep more if he can (if he is OT then most likely he won't manage) and if we will see he is giving us UT naps then we can up it again to 3h A time. But that means this is your A time throughout the day. If you are getting a short nap and you think he is very tired and can't manage 2:45h A time then you can shorten it to 2:30h, but not shorter than that.
After doing the new A time for three days we can revisit it again. Perhaps naps will get better or will be UT (between 45min and 1:20h) and we will increase A again. If naps will still be 30min then it could be that he has a problem transitioning through the sleep cycles by himself. In that case we would work on A times and helping him sleep through a nap with HTTJ (hold through the jolts). You can read about it more here: How do I address habitual wakings? (wake-to-sleep and other methods) (and this the link as well about W2S if you want to give it another try, it usually takes about a week to work).
The last thing is about him sleeping independently. Is this something you want to work on? I am asking because this is a commitment and perhaps you prefer trying on A times and HTTJ first and only then do sleep training.
Sleep training is not going to work in a day or two. I am almost certain you will see an improvement after a couple of days but it might take a while for him to be an independent sleeper. You see, he has always been swayed and when you'll start and do things differently you are almost definitely going to meet some resistance. 
If you do decide to tackle the swaying prop then I think PU/PD is your way to go and the PU/PD board there is plenty of info: FAQ's - Frequently Asked Questions & Related Information
If you have Tracey's books there is also lots of info there. If he does have Reflux, then PU/PD is not an option and we can think of a different way.
I hope that helps for now, I am sure it's a lot to think about. If you have more questions, I am here and of course you can keep on posting your routines when you are tweaking A times .