To think my baby is trying to break me?

[Youcantscaremeihavechildren]

DS is 7 months old and was put to bed at 6:30...I have since then, fed him 3 times (no-one is that bloody hungry), rocked him back to sleep 3 times whilst he makes a noise like this:

Fed him again whilst he swings his arms about and flails about, twisting my nipples and making said noise, ignored him whilst he laughs and rolls about in his cot, and finally handed him to DH with a bottle of formula and flounced downstairs. Ive now finally given in again and am feeding him again downstairs in the frigging dark with tears running down my face hoping he'll give in before I lose my mind.

AIBU to think he actually hates me? I just want more than 40 mins sleep at a time, it's not too much to ask is it?

He slept through once...it was amazing..stares wistfully into distance, imagining what life could be like with children who sleep and yes, I know, this too will pass, he's not a baby forever, I can sleep when I'm dead etc which will be tomorrow if this carries on but I just want to go to bed ato night without that horrible anticipation of knowing I could be asleep for 2 hrs max all night.

Our DS, who we didn't sleep train as a small baby as we were too PFB about it is still a nightmare sleeper.

DD is now 9 months, still has the odd night of wakefulness but I will not offer any milk between final bedtime feed (approx 8pm) and 7am. She packs loads in by day. A 7 month old does not need feeding at night never mind every 45 mins - He's just waking at the end of each sleep cycle so you need to train him to self settle

Completely feel for you op, been there with my 8mo. And sure it'll happen to us again! That book really helped me, and on Facebook she does a free Q and A ejther every first or last Wednesday of the month at 9pm. Maybe you could ask a question there. But it sounds like there's so much going on :(

Is there a reason why you don't want to feed to sleep anymore? I still do - if it gets her to sleep then that's fine by me!

Do you use a baby sleeping bag? Helps my baby feel warm and comforted as I keep her in the bag all night so easier to put her down

Has your baby got a comforter? Might be worth a go? We have one but mainly my DD uses it to play with sometimes when she wakes which gives us a few more precious minutes of sleep!

I imagine that as you co sleep baby is used to his needs being met immediately so any sleep 'training' will be really hard to do and to be honest I've read that there are more sleep hurdles down the line so you'd need to train all over again?

The book is brilliant and helped us so much. Her sleep isn't perfect, usually up once or twice. Still naps on boob. But that works for us. Where will your baby be when you're at work? Might be worth considering how they'll approach naps and try to replicate that? Or just try to stop worrying about naps and let baby learn in his new environment when you're at work as he would have to learn what to do then anyway.

Another thing i do is wait just a minute to see if she stops crying without me or when I've put her down - sometimes she does, sometimes not, if she doesn't stop I feed her, if she stops then I go back to sleep!

I hope you manage to get some sleep soon. Youve just obviously done such a fabulous job that your baby finds so much comfort in you x

Ignore anyone that says your baby doesn't need feeding at night. I think it's about 25% sleep through by this age? Every baby is different and you'll know if your baby is hungry every time or not

Thanks all for your advice and good wishes..I'd love to say I feel a bit brighter but that would be lying. I feel like death. After dropping off to sleep at 2 he was awake again at 3..in bed with us then until he woke just after 6:30 but until then he was waking several times, I just fed him as it's the only way I get sleep.
I think I've tried everything mentioned, routine, cot attahed to bed, calpol etc apart from cio which I'm just not doing. We have a plan to gradually get him away from sleeping only with boob which we've had some small successes with, I'll just have to keep going. Out for a walk this morning with him in the sling to get a good morning sleep and some fresh air, then I'll be back to bed with him at lunchtime I reckon!
Hopefully I can etc his bedtime later eventually but at the moment it's 7, any later and he's anot overtired mess. Like me.

We used controlled crying. I know some people think it's cruel (though I'm pretty sure it's not), but it's worth it for the sake of your own sanity. I have no doubt that babies prefer happy, even-tempered, loving mothers to frazzled, exhausted, bad-tempered ones. We found it effective within two or three days.

another vote for controlled crying. did it with all 3 of mine but you do have to have a plan and you have to stick to it for it to work. it isn't cruel at all. what is cruel is someone who feels so sleep deprived and frazzled as you do OP.

try it - properly - and it will work. I just do not understand how mums go on when its like this, I really don't. it took no longer than 7 nights to crack and once done we couldn't believe the difference it made to me and the children. they ate better during the day, were less grizzly and I had masses more energy to go out and do things with them. win win all round. we did all 3 them around 5 - 7 months.

middle DC was a very hungry baby so we upped the solids during the day - lots of little frequent meals every couple of hours and gave her a big bowlful before bedtime. they are now older teens but still have the horrible memories of post sleeping training and how incredibly exhausted I was and unable to function.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to work towards a) daytime feeding, not all nightfeeding followed by no food in day and b) solids so your baby is actually full by the time they go to bed.

I simply don't see anything cruel in this, unless you can carry on living in backwards land where you are awake all night and asleep all day!

Good luck with it all, try no-cry solutions if you have to (I would sleep train myself) but really, this is no way to live and you might find your baby is a lot happier with better deeper sleep too.

Yep, I'm happy just using no cry techniques at the moment. Cc isn't suitable for a 7 month old who could be teething, is going through a leap and is not eating enough to be totally full (was doing well but is now distracted easily and shows little interest in food.) I've done a lot of reading and cc etc don't make sense to me either, horses for courses!

I am however going to bite the bullet and make night waking more difficult for a while by offering water at least half the time, he will probably create and cry but he can be rocked and held to drop off to sleep eventually so we can give that a go, at least if I know he's having a proper feed once or at most twice in the night then I can go from there. Plus lots of calpol and a few lunchtime sleeps for me until we get over this glitch.
He has slept through all night once and prior to 5 months would do a really long stretch until 2am. Fingers crossed he'll remember how eventually!

We used controlled crying too, when DS was about that age. It changed my life. Since then, more than six months ago, we've had a few nights when he woke and needed a quick cuddle, and two really bad nights when we had to bring him into bed because he's been really ill. That was this weekend, so I don't know if he'll go back to sleeping well when he's better. I hope so because I wanted to die before we sleep trained him.