Haven't been here for a while but I'm in need of some BW advice again - dug the books out again today!
DS2 is 8 months old. He has been a fab sleeper pretty much since day 1 - slept through the night from about 6 weeks onwards, with occasional interruptions for growth spurts and when he was feeling under the weather. He was exclusively breastfed (and some EBM) to 16 weeks, with a few oz of formula introduced at bedtime from that age onwards until a couple of months back when he had a nasty cold and flatly refused to countenance a bottle even with EBM in - from which point he has been solely breastfed again. He's got two teeth, is a good eater - loves his food - and is generally a happy and laid-back little soul, very smiley and chatty. He's a total joy, and until recently I would have classified him as an Angel/Textbook baby. However....
It now feels like someone has swapped my delightful all-night sleeping baby for a stranger who deliberately keeps himself awake by turning himself on his stomach and then screaming for hours....
This weekend has been a nightmare. He has been awake in the night every night repeatedly at random times, being wide awake and wanting to play, getting stuck on his tummy and crying for help, crying for food then not always being hungry, melting down when put back in his cot... it's been horrible. I don't know how I'm still functioning, I have had so little sleep. Worse than when he was a newborn, if I'm honest.
The only thing I can think that it might be is a developmental change - he's now so active in the daytime (getting up on his knees and rocking, constantly wanting to be standing up and trying to walk, very interested in everything, bit of separation anxiety coming in, crying when you leave the room or even go out of his line of sight...) that his brain is buzzing at night and he can't settle himself down to sleep again. Even when he's feeding his arms are flailing, hitting himself on the head, pulling at my clothes - it's like he can't switch off. Other possibilities are a growth spurt (he does eat well and is a bit of a chubster!) or teeth, though I can't see any new ones coming through.
He always used to be the kind of baby you could feed and then pop back in his cot and he'd happily settle himself down to sleep within minutes, chatting to himself and doing the little tired creaky noises. Now he starts to cry as soon as you put him down, or at the latest when you leave the room. He's fine at naptime, mostly - drifts off nicely for a good 2 hours - and even at bedtime he has his feed and will go down in his bed awake, maybe whimpers a bit after I leave the room, but then falls asleep fairly rapidly. But the night waking thing is a whole different story. I have started (making a rod for my own back?!) holding him firmly in my arms to try and get him to calm down enough to go to sleep - almost like swaddling him again. He fights it for a moment - back arching, kicking out with his feet - but then we get the 7 mile stare and he drifts off. At the moment that's the only way I can get him to settle back to sleep in the night. Otherwise he will just cry and cry and cry... it's horrible. Pick up/put down is something I have never tried, but I have a feeling it would just be an endless cycle - he WANTS me to pick him up, that's why he cries. Shush/pat doesn't seem to work either when he's got himself into one of his states. The only thing that works reliably at the moment is the tight hold - he needs his sleep too, so I'm using this technique and clinging to that tiny speck of light at the end of our dark tunnel.... I'll probably end up regretting this too. Sigh.
Any advice? From reading the PU/PD chapter I think it might be a growth spurt/developmental combination... I just hope I haven't got myself into an AP trap
