Please help! I'm totally at my end!

[Kellymc1988]

Hi!
Apologies if I sound like a raving lunatic but I think I may be on the verge! My baby is nearly 10 months old. He used to sleep through the night from around 13 weeks, but that lasted about a month- and by 4 months we'd had it!
Since then, it's been 6 months of constant night crying ( hubby and I both work FT too, we've had constant colds/flus/bugs because we are so run down.)
I don't even know where to start, I thought it was teething, we treated with calpol/gels (yes,all of them!) but he's still only just getting his second tooth. Surely this hasn't been a constant problem for 6 months?!
We thought it was hunger so tried feeding him porridge for supper, made no difference. Dummy's/comforters/extra feeds/in bed with us...Basically we've tried everything.
We're now ten months in, exhausted, full of flu, and have a baby with a sleep pattern like this:
Bath/dry/dressed and bottle - 7pm ish
Sleeps ok until about 10/11 - screams until he gets another bottle (may be able to pasify him with dummy but literally for 10/15 mins, so what's the point?!)
Then from about 1am he wil wake up every 45-60 mins until 6am when we get him up.
The only thing that settles him is a bottle so now we've completely messed up his estkng because he barely takes any milk through the day and gorges on 15-20mls a night now 😞😞😞
Please help! I geninuly can't take anymore.

[FATEdestiny]

What is his daytime sleep routine?

[Ellapaella]

Is he napping too much in the day? I've had 3 DC, all have been very different with sleep patterns but my youngest (now 2) stopped having day time naps at 5 months - after that time if he slept in the day he would simply just not sleep at night. You could try reducing or minimising day time sleeps or try putting him to bed later? What about delaying bedtime until 8.30? It sounds like he has developed a bit of a habit of crying out for you when he wakes in the night. I would personally recommend doing some controlled crying but I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

[Kellymc1988]

CC is the only thing I've not tried really, I'm not opposed to it...

He is at nursery, he tends to nap around 10ish and again around 12.30 (usually for an hour tops) hubby picks him up at 4, and he does occasionally nap on route home- 20 mins?

I've thought about doing a later bedtime but he needs to be up at 6.20 so would that be too little sleep?

[Ellapaella]

I'd say perhaps he is getting a few too many naps during the day - I'd try and reduce that down to one nap and ask nursery to support you in that - on the way home get DH to have some songs on in the car, sing loudly and try and get him to clap along and stay awake! (Easier said than done I know). I'd try to get him down to one daytime nap, ensuring he doesn't sleep after 2pm first and see if that makes a difference. They are all so different, one size doesn't fit all but that if he's not settling well at night I'd certainly start by reducing the amount of daytime sleep and go from there.

[Scrumptiouscrumpets]

It sounds like he has a sleep association with the bottle. He has difficulty getting from one sleep cycle to the next in the second part of the night, when sleep is lighter, and needs the bottle to fall asleep again.
I think you need to get rid of the bottle and teach him to find comfort in his dummy. You say he hardly has any milk during the day, this means he really does need the milk he has at night. I'd gradually reduce the amount you give him in every single bottle until you're left with only 40ml or so, then you can go cold turkey and try to get him back to sleep with just his dummy (or he might have stopped waking by that point).

[Kellymc1988]

Thank you!!
Well last night he woke up once (this is remarkable and the best he's done in 6-7 months!!) I watered down his milk, for night feeding, he only Bothered with about two ounces and then didn't wake again. He was hungry enough to take a morning bottle before nursery- this has literally happened! So hopefully I can keep up with it today and get a decent amount of Milk in him before nighttime!