My son has been a bad sleeper since he was born. He never slept through the night, and things have only gone worse overtime.
I had to move into his room, because of his constant night wakings and everybody else need to sleep at night, btw I work fulltime as well.
For his nap he usually doesn't want to be rocked and falls asleep in his bed pretty soon, but we have to shush and pat him.
At bed time I usually rock him in a chair to sleep and then transfer him into his bed for his night sleep. The pacifier is his prop as well. He spits it out soon.
He will wake up for the first time after an hour into his sleep when he looses his paci, and/or rolls over it and it hurts him. He never looks for it to re-insert it himself, but instead sits up and cries. I always run in before he fully awakes himself. Give his paci back and he falls right back to sleep.
And this vicious cycle repeats every 2 hours.
At around 3:00-4:00 AM he wakes up for a bottle of milk. If I don't give it to him he screams his lungs out and doesn't go back to sleep no matter how much I try to soothe him. So I just give it to him and he falls back asleep within minutes.
He also always wakes up to pee and then cries for me.
He always checks for me when not fully asleep, I have to stay by his bed with my arms inside, otherwise he will stand up and cry.
I have tried to start PU/PD several times during the past year, but always failed at NW's b/c of his cries, the lack of sleep for me and the rest of the family.
I have been sleep deprived for 14 months now, and I feel like I can't handle it anymore. I want my life back and want to sleep in my own bed and not on a mattress in my baby's room. I also understand how important it is to teach him to sleep independetly.
Please help me to locate the reason of his nightwakings and the proper way to sleep train him, wether it is the separation anxiety, or prop (pacifier, milk, rocking), peeing, or it is all in one. He is also teething now, cutting 4 molars at the same time. I am not sure if I can sleep train him during this time.
This is his routine. He is on solids and snacks during the day, and one bottle at night
Awake: 8.00
E: 8.30
A: 9.00 - 12.30
E: 12:30
S: 1.00- 3:00 (he used to nap 2 hrs, it cut down to 1.5 hrs for the past 4 days)
E: 3.30
A: 4.00 - 6.30
E: 6.30
A: 7.00 - 7.30 (bedtime routine, books, bath, rocking)
S: 7.30, asleep at around 8:00
Any advice is appreciated.
Thank you all!
