Please help - sleeping has reverted badly!

[Essie3]

I'll try to keep this brief, and it's going on the bfing board too.
My baby is 6 1/2 months old. Exclusively breastfed, refuses point blank to take a bottle. For the past 3 weeks, he's been spoon fed a bit, and we're on lunch and dinner (!) by now.
The problem is his sleeping has become pretty disastrous in the last week.
We used to put him to bed at 8pm, he'd sleep. Dream feed at 11 / 11.30, and he'd sleep then until 3am-4am, and then again to 8.30-9.30am. Although this wasn't sleeping through, it worked for us (until the magic sleeping through happened!).
However, for the past week, he has been waking every 3 hours for a feed. For 2 nights running, he's woken at 10.15 in the evening, and then every 2-3 hours from then on. DH is knackered and tries to settle him without feeding but nothing doing so far. I have no alternative but to feed him as he won't take a bottle or cup of any kind, and I'm becoming increasingly run down, dehydrated and tired.
Neither DH or I are able to see a way through this, and I have to go back to work next week. I'm so panicky about it now that I'm making myself ill; it would have worked with the once-a-night waking, but not this 3 hourly wake up thing. Plus, if he won't take a bottle I'll have to drive backwards and forwards to feed him.

Please, please someone suggest something. We're desperate.

Our 'routine':
He wakes, feeds, we wash and dress him. About 1 1/2 hours later he has a nap. This varies from half an hour to 1 1/2 hours.
3 hours after initial wake up he gets a milk feed, and around 12.30 he gets puree. He normally eats the equivalent of a small Hipp jar (the first tastes sized one) and it's a fruit or veg puree.
He has a nap after lunch, feeds every 3 hours or so.
6pm we sit him down and feed him again, although this can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes he eats a lot, sometimes hardly any.
7pm we start bathtime, and I bfeed him at around 7.45. He's normally down pretty easily by 8pm.

[nickymorris]

will he drink from a cup? Might be worth trying.

good luck with the return to work....

[ten10]

Have you tried giving more carbs at tea time, as maybe he is waking because he is hungry,

and carbs digest slower so keep them feeling fuller for longer,
maybe mix veg purees with baby rice to bulk them up,
or introduce rice cakes as snacks

[Essie3]

Ok, more carbs. I have baby cereal and all sorts. (I thought weaning was supposed to help with sleeping not make it worse!! )
He will not take ebm from anything. It's bm, fresh from source, only here...

[ches]

Six month growth spurt plus gross motor development sleep regression. Your position sounds luxurious to mine -- working full-time, DS refused bottles and went from waking twice a night to waking every hour. Somehow you survive. (Oh, and DS wouldn't entertain solids until 11 mth.)