My wife and I are getting to our wits end with our ds. He's 4 and a bit months old and although he has never been a great sleeper, the last week or two have been awful.
Our standard routine is - bath at 6.30pm (used to be later, but when the clocks changed it became impossible to keep him scream-free for later times - even keeping things at 6.30 is a challenge, he normally starts getting very grumpy from 5.30/6.00), then a bottle (normally breastfed plus this one bottle at night, which he takes no problem), normally a breast topup and then bed. This had worked reasonably well in the past with even the odd night where he's slept through, although normally it's at least one feed if not two during the night.
Now he wakes an hour after being put down and we then enter a nightmare of screaming.
Last night he had a number of 30 min sleeps, but always woke up screaming and was inconsolable. We've tried controlled crying, hugging, walking, feeding, white noise - all of them result in a tired, upset, screaming, awake baby. For hours and hours on end.
I'm fairly sure it's related to his inability to nap during the day - today he only had one 30min nap (they're usually a max of 30 mins, rarely longer). It's virtually impossible to get him to nap without a trip in the pram or car, even then he'll wake as soon as the motion stops. At home he has some kind of motion sensor that flicks him awake as soon as you try to lay him down.
We've steeled ourselves to try controlled crying again tonight, but are both living in dread of it and both suffering from stress as a result.
Anyone experienced similar or have any tips before we both go insane?
Thanks.