7 month old Night waking, inconsolable, hates crib

[Aggieboy513]

Not sure where to post this as I feel like I've created a ton of bad habits for my 7 month old boy and desperately need advice/help.

He's never been a great sleeper, but it's gotten even worse lately (after a bout with a cold and 2 ear infections, his first two teeth and holiday visitors).

Prior to these changes, he was still waking 1-2 times a night. He seemed hungry (6 month growth spurt?) so I fed him during these wakings. He went back into his crib awake, but fell asleep easily.

When he got his ear infections and was teething, he seemed very uncomfortable in his crib but would easily sleep in his rock n play... So we did that thinking it would just be a couple day thing. Around the same time, he also started being very clingy and although he used to put himself to sleep he suddenly would only go to sleep in my arms. Because we had visitors and he seemed so miserable, I went with it. This lasted about a week.

In the past few days (after an all clear from the doctor), we've been doing the crib again. He varies between going to sleep in the crib with shushing and patting to going to sleep in our arms after numerous attempts of PUPD. He first wakes about 2-3 hours after going down and then cries and fights sleep (despite our numerous attempts at calming and helping him) for a couple hours. He continues this off and on all night. We will often hold him to sleep (after trying. PUPD a lot) and the as soon as he gets in the crib he will wake and cry.

I don't know what to do. I don't believe in CIO... And I know he is overtired, but can't figure out how to help him get more sleep (other than hold him or use pnp and continue these props)

Naps are another issue... We can typically only get one long one (1.15 to 1.45) and the other naps are 45 min and 30 min respectively. Also, despite attempts to stretch him to 4 hr easy schedule, he reverted back to 3-3.5 hrs during the 6 month growth spurt (EBF). He is often a quick Eater and I'm not sure if he gets as much as he needs to last 4 hrs. Below is yesterday's schedule...

Wake at 6:45
Eat (bf) at 7:10
Eat (2 ice cubes pears and oatmeal cereal) at 7:55
Activity
Sleep 8:55-10:15 (woke up happy)
Eat (bf) 10:45
Eat (2 ice cubes sweet potato) 11:55
Slept 12:45-1:30 (woke up crying)
Eat (bf) 2:00
Eat (2 ice cubes squash) 3:00
Slept 3:45-4:15 (woke up crying/ot)
Eat (bf) 5:00
Eat (top up bf) 6:30
Sleep (6:45/7)
He woke up again at 8:30; was up until 11:30; slept til 12:30; up and ate; slept for another hour or two; up and ate... So on until 6:45/7

Eager for any and all feedback. I've got to fix this for my little man and my husband and I. We all need our sleep to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be!!

[Layla]

Hi there and welcome to the BW!

Hugs for the night wakings, you must be so tired .

At night, when he wakes, I would stop the rocking to sleep and try and be consistent with pu/pd. Have you tried shh/pat or a variation of it. My dd still responds really well to shh/pat, I've never really had to do pu/pd. You could try patting the mattress or gently rubbing his back... and you don't have to be in the room until he's asleep. If he's mantra crying, you don't have to be in there at all.. only need to be with him if he's crying an "i need you" cry and once he's starting to settle down, you can leave.

Also, I would encourage a change in routine - at 7 months, most babies give up the catnap... the 3rd nap can cause more night wakings and it would be better if he had 2 longer sleeps rather than 3 short sleeps in a day. At 7 months, A times are around 3 hrs, so I would try and stretch him and you may find he will sleep longer (ideally 1.5hrs).

So in our case, we used to stretch A's by taking dd out of the house, lots of distraction and then doing a longer windonw routine. I would suggest an extra 10-15mins every couple of days until you get there. If you see that his afternoon nap ends around 3pm, it would probably be better to do an early bedtime as opposed to 3rd nap.
What do you think?