My husband and I are falling apart!
(Unfortunately, both of our parents are a plane ride away and can't help.)
My 8-month-old was never a good sleeper, but we had him sleeping not through, but decently, until about a month ago. Then, his sleep started deteriorating more and more until we're now at the point of waking every hour or less all night, sometimes going back to sleep quickly but other times screaming on and off for up to an hour. The wake-ups are totally not consistent, every night is different, some better, some worse, but one thing that is consistent is a 4:30 LONG wakeup. I usually take him into my bed sometime around 5:30-6 and nurse him.
When he wakes up, I usually don't nurse him, because he hasn't between 11:30-6 in months, and is doing great on solids. But when I do try it "just in case", it doesn't help anyway -- he goes right back to screaming as soon as I try putting him back in his crib. Sometimes he wants his paci, other times I try to put it in and he pushes away my hand. He also is sometimes calmed by patting his stomach or rocking his crib. However, NONE of these things work for that 4:30 wakeup, and neither does picking up and putting down. I must add that for a while, he had a prop of needing to fall asleep on my husband's lap!!! at this 4:30 wakeup (this also took up to an hour), and we stopped this for about a week now. But we can't do wake to sleep, because he probably won't be sleeping at 3:30 either!
During the day, he is generally happy, although lately somewhat clingy and less playful, as he should well be! We wake up 7-7:30, although I tend to cheat on weekends. The first nap is usually 9-11:30, and he needs to be nursed to sleep. He's not so good about taking a second nap, so lately I've just been napping in bed with him, and when he stirs after 45 minutes, I quickly start nursing, and then I walk away and he might sleep another 45 minutes if we're lucky. Other days, my husband takes him.
Thanks for reading this long message! Please help quick!
