Somebody please help me turn this aroune

[Tallulahoola]

DS is 7 months. He has never slept well but what used to be waking up every 3 hours is now 2 hours at best and every time he demands feeding, but some of those times will only feed for 2 minutes while others he feeds a lot. Then I put him down and 15 minutes later he wakes up again, that time I can just about settle him with a cuddle and put him back again. I've been coping with it pretty well I think (I also have a toddler to look after) but last night he woke up 10 times and today I'm in tears and can barely function. It can't carry on. I am panicking about going back to work and him still being like this. I know it's my fault for getting into a pattern of feeding him to sleep every time but how do I change it? He's EBF and won't drink out of a bottle.

I was following the Ferber advice to space out the feeds - so for a couple of weeks I was only feeding him at 11.30pm and 2.30am and 6am. But it made no difference to the amount of times he woke up crying in between. I always put him down for the night and for naps awake and he has no problem going to sleep like that.

I am willing to do controlled crying but we're in a vicious circle where he probably is hungry at night and doesn't eat enough during the day so I worry that going cold turkey would be cruel. And if I just keep one or two night feeds won't that be confusing for him, that I feed him sometimes and not others?

Have tried co-sleeping but it makes no difference either to the number of night wakings so it has no benefits other than the fact I don't have to get up to feed him. And it's the broken sleep that's killing me.

I've been weaning him for a month but he's not taking in great quantities of food. This is how our day looks roughly in case anyone can see room for improvement:

7am small bf (he's not hungry as usually I've fed him at 5 and 6)

9am breakfast (Weetabix/yoghurt/porridge)

10am bf

Morning nap

12pm lunch

1.30pm bf

Afternoon nap

bf once or twice in the afternoon

6pm tea (something quite small)

7pm/7.30pm bf then bed

And then last night I fed him at

9pm
10.30pm
1am
3am
5am
6am
6.30am

and I'm well aware how ridiculous that is but there seemed no other way of getting him back to sleep without hours of crying which would have made both of us even more upset and tired.

[Tallulahoola]

*around
Sorry for the typo in the title

I should have also said that sometimes when I put him down for a nap in the day he protests and cries but then eventually goes to sleep after a maximum of 5 minutes, but I just don't think he'd do that at night when he's already woken up crying and cranky

[Plantpot83]

Hi, no advice from me unfortunately, just wanted to follow because my DD (8 months) has pretty much exactly them same feeding/sleeping pattern. Including the cluster feeding in the early hours. She has however started doing a longer unbroken stretch from 10-3am, not every night but quite frequently, so I love in hope that things will improve!

[Tallulahoola]

10-3am - I would kill for that!