Starting to loose the plot over sleep

[ThePippy]

Really at the end of my tether. DS (16 months) has had brief encounters with sleeping through the night, first at 15 weeks old (lasted 2 weeks before going totally tits up with 4am 2hour long wakeful sessions), then again at maybe 6m for a few weeks before reverting back to wanting night feeds.

I have tried everything, he has a very good and consistent routine, naps well (one nap of 2-3hrs long on a good day) and self settles (well did until the last week) with no cuddles/rocking/feeding etc. But when he wakes in the night boy can that boy scream, and I'm talking hysterical screaming until he gets what he wants. He doesn't want cuddles, and if we try and he can't see a bottle of milk the crying goes straight to Defcon 1 on the crying/thrashing scale.

I was just about coping with this as it meant 1 or sometimes 2 very quick splash and dash feeds in the night which meant no drama and I was back in bed sleeping quickly (important given I work full time), and we had started a slow/kind process of reducing the amount of milk in each feed, but the last 2 weeks have been a nightmare. It started with a terrible cough that massively interrupted his ability to stay asleep, which then started causing issues with him being able to settle himself, and then led to cough induced vomiting. Well it seems that the vomiting thing has taught him how to get a definite and very fast response from us, because the last 4 nights have seen us doing full bed changes due to him vomiting when crying (not cough induced). I'm not talking us leaving him for 5, 10 or 20 mins in come kind of controlled crying, just the time it takes to get up the stairs once the siren crying starts. Not sure what to do now really. Any advice? Anyone had a vomiter?

[mummy2benji]

Ds1 vomited on occasion when he got really upset and as he had feeding difficulties and was so hard to get milk into in the frst place, I felt I had to go running when he started to howl in case he brought up the precious milk feed we'd spent 90 minutes over. It is very stressful, I do sympathise. We used a dummy with him and it did help settle him at night. It is very hard, but if he does vomit, try to count to 10 and not show that you are obviously really wound up and stressed by it, just calmly and quietly change his sheets and tuck him back in again. I've always found that the kids are much worse sleepers after a change in routine, or an illness. Hopefully he'll settle more when the cough has completely gone and when the memory of the illness has passed - good luck. x

[ThePippy]

Thanks Mummy2benji. Last night was an improvement although we had to do gradual withdrawal at bedtime as he was not happy just being put in the cot - up until before he got sick he was happy to just be kissed, put down and we could walk out while he rolled over and got himself off to sleep. Hopefully this is him starting to get back to normal. Just got to tackle the night feeds now! It never ends! Thanks for the response.