Hi, my almost 8 month old has developed sleep association - boobie!
Let's start from the beginning.
He never was a great sleeper but currently it is getting worse and worse.
He refused any try with dummy, bottles - those props are now out of the window at this stage. He used to be bounced up and down to fall asleep or settle. At 6 months I couldn't cope with it anymore and decided to stop this. Waited for husband to go away for work (he sucks at any training and jeopardises everything). After about 5 days of listening to screaming hell and just holding him in my arms with zero movement he'd settle. Night wakings were either just cuddles (I started co-sleeping with him) or BF if it was few hours (since birth he only has one breast at the time - never interested into having more).
My husband is away a lot for work and I also have a 5 year old. I consider myself a lone parent in terms of looking after children. I do not have any family or support.
To stay sane I sometimes timed breastfeeding so I can help him to fall asleep.
Last month he is worse than a newborn. Wakes up every 1.5-2 hours. Shushing, patting, cuddles only make him angry. Picking him up and bouncing up and down (which I fought so long to stop!) for few sec sometimes does the trick, sometimes doesn't. If I just continue to soothe him, he will wake himself up and stay awake for 1-2 hours. If I cave in and offer a breast, majority of time he will fall asleep peacefully on it (after having a good feed) or eat and keep fussing afterwards (fully asleep).
He has been teething a lot few months ago but still no teeth. Few times I was so clueless why he is so unsettled and gave him calpol or anbesol but he'd still scream his head off 45 minutes later - it's not pain because he is back to happy when awake.
I have tried gentle weaning methods: feeding after waking up but he'd still want another feed before next nap (despite having a meal in the meantime - he is not massive fan of big people food), or breaking the suction as soon as I noticed he stopped actively eating. It all doesn't seem to make any difference.
I tried few times to put him in his cot for his naps if he didn't fall asleep on the breast. After 2h of crying (despite best efforts to comfort him with cuddles) he would wake up after 20minutes of sobbing during sleep.
I feel I am just mentally broken and too tired to dive in to full blown sleep training again and I have another child to look after.
Is there sometimes I am missing out on? Other gentle approach I didn't think off? I am so ready to wean him off the breast fully (only milk he ever accepted was freshly pumped from sippy cup - no formula, no defrosted in any temperature - tried them all).
He is going through 8 month sleep regression on top of that I would imagine. His naps are all over the place.
He was ready for bedtime at 5pm and sleep (with multiple night wakings till 5am). We are now not back home until 6:30 so now he goes to sleep at 7 but still awake at 5:30. He has a nap 1 or 1.5h later. Then sometimes he is awake for 2.5-3.5 hours - then nap between 45min to 2.5h (I never know which one is it going to be) and then skip his last nap. That stretches his awake window sometimes to 5h and he will not go for 3rd nap despite my best efforts.
There is zero consistency and I never know how my day is going to look like.
Any advise very much appreciated.