Someone please tell me where I am going wrong...

[MumToaSleepThief]

Quite a lot of information so going to try and keep this concise...
DS is 7 months this week, EBF and sleeping terribly at night.
He used to go down at 9pm and wake twice (around 2 and 5) up until around 4 months old.
Since 4 months old he has woken anywhere between 4-5 times a night - typical night being bed at 7, wakes at 9,11,1,3,5 then up at 7. Cannot settle him except to feed him, he just screams blue murder.
Recently think we've gone through a growth spurt as he is now feeding on both sides in the night - something which I've now started doing in the day too to try and get some extra calories into him.
Apart from the feeds at night sometimes he will not go down in between. He just rolls around, crawls with his legs and pushes head across mattress (IYKWIM). Last night up between 3.30 and 5.45.
No idea where I'm going wrong and to make it worse he did 3 AMAZING nights this week (amazing to me anyway) and only woke at 11 and 4. The 3 amazing nights coincided with me changing bedtime routine. He now gets fed in a nappy after bath, then vest, sleeping bag, dummy, story, white noise and bed (this used to be feeding as last in the list but he didn't ever feed to sleep, just very drowsy!)
Currently he is still in the Next to Me crib as I have no idea how being in his own room would work when he is still waking this amount.
Weaning isn't going as well as it could - we are doing a mix of puree and BLW. He definitely shows interest but doesn't actually swallow much/if any.
Naps are a mess (tbh they always have been) but atm he either has 2 longer ones (one morning and one afternoon) or 3 shorter ones (additional one around lunch time). I've tried limiting nap times to no longer than 1.5 hours, i've tried letting him sleep for as long as he wants. I've tried not letting him sleep after 3/4pm and i've tried letting him have a catnap after 4 (in case it was over tiredness).
Nothing is working and to still be like this at 7 months in is tough I get so anxious as it gets closer to evening each day as I worry about what the night will bring. I have a constant headache due to broken sleep and I guess its just all getting a bit much.
Any tips/advice or tweaks would be SO appreciated because I think I'm just so engrossed in it all I can't see how else I can change things or what else I can try.

Thank you

[LapinR0se]

Are you actually feeding him to sleep? Sorry am reading your post but not 100% clear. Also would you consider putting him in his own room now?

[MumToaSleepThief]

During the night or at bedtime?

At bedtime, no - he never fed to sleep but i've moved it further away from bedtime in case he was associating it with sleep, so now its after bath but before the rest of the bedtime routine.

In the night I'm not sure. I think he goes down slightly awake after night feeds as I put him down, he rolls over and I can hear him as he drifts off into a deep sleep. I did think the night feeds were for comfort but now he's feeding on both sides and draining both fully I do think he is hungry. HV seemed to agree as he's dropped from 90th percentile to 50th.

[MumToaSleepThief]

No problem about putting him in own room its just with the amount he wakes it is easy having him next to me. Maybe it would help the situation though as I do wonder whether he gets disturbed by us and also whether he can smell milk on me.

[purpleviolet1]

I’ve read and heard that the baby can definitely be difficult to settle when he or she smells mums milk. Can you bite the bullet and move him into his own room? Feed him frequently (every 2-3 hours) during the day, offer both sides and keep trying with the weaning. Can he and does he self settle? Make a rule that after he goes to bed, you won’t feed him for say the first 4 hours (or whatever is reasonable). Do you have someone who could go in to his room when he wakes at non feed times? He is unlikely to sleep through when not taking solids properly but I wouldn’t think he would wake so often out of hunger

[purpleviolet1]

I used a sleep consultant as my ds has cmpa and severe reflux and it was a long journey. He was a good sleeper until he took a reaction and we had to change his milk for the 2nd time. It was so worth it and she helped me get rid of the dummy too as sometimes he was waking because it popped out (and wasn’t able to put it back in himself)

[MumToaSleepThief]

purple how did the sleep consultant work? Was it over the phone or a visit? I've heard they're expensive but considering it for some sort of tailored approach.

[nightshade]

Babies tend to become more unsettled at night particularly when they are starting to learn to crawl and move about..

It's a myth that they progressively get better at sleeping from day one...

It tends to be one step forward two back...

[purpleviolet1]

OP I used the sleep lady

www.thesleeplady.co.uk/

She has a few options - I saw her at her sleep clinic and had 3 follow ups over the phone

She charged £75 for this. I had 3 instead of 2 follow ups because we didn’t use the full hour at the initial consultation (because she identified that the milk was an issue and advised me to go to Gp)

[MumToaSleepThief]

Thank you @purpleviolet1 and everyone else. DS cut 2 teeth last night (top 2) so I'm wondering if the last few nights have been because of that. Hoping that we might go back to the amazingness we had for a few days last week (after I changed his bedtime routine) of just 2 wake ups... never thought I'd be saying that at 7 months

We are going to move him into his own room once the teeth have fully cut so hopefully in the next few days - having to walk across to his room will wake me up more each time he wakes so that I can decipher whether he is actually hungry or just looking for comfort (atm it's just easier to stay half asleep and feed as he is so close I don't really have to move)

Also hoping that he starts crawling soon because the getting on all 4's and rocking at 3am is not cool!!!

[purpleviolet1]

Aw hopefully it will have just been the teeth! Ds was up twice last night too (usually up once around 5am and occasionally sleeps through) and today he is being really clingy