My baby won't sleep

[Snowflake01]

Ds is 7 months old and ebf. We started (safe) cosleeping quite early on as this worked well for us and he would wake whenever we placed him down. Roll on six months and we are trying to put him in his cot and start a routine for him. He will sleep for maybe an hour before waking and after that he wakes as soon as we place him in the cot again and will cry until picked up and cuddled (rinse and repeat several times). I get so exhausted that he ends up in bed with us every night.

He has recently started only wanting me when he wakes too, meaning he'll cry with DP until I go up and bf him. Even once he's in our bed he still wakes up a few times - although I've put this down to teething.

During the day he is the happiest baby, full of smiles and really quite easy. But the nights are so tiring, I feel as though I'm not able to enjoy him as much during the day as a result.

Do any of you have any advice on how I can make this easier for us all and get ds to settle himself?

Bless you that sounds so tough. Sleep deprivation is the WORST :(

Have you tried white noise? Helps settle my DS. It has to be quite loud in his case and on all night. Is he rolling yet, if not can you try swaddling? What about trying a dummy? And giving him a muslin or comforter that smells of you and he can cuddle?

Hi,
Is his cot in your room? If yes, try putting cot next to your dh’s side....so your DS can’t smell your breast milk as easily.

Saying that, I’m sure you know it’s totally normal for a baby that young to be waking to feed multiple times through the night. 7 months is still very young to be establishing a bedtime routine and you’re doing such a cool job still exclusively breastfeeding him. Even bottle fed babies won’t necessatily sleep into more of a pattern at that age. It’s natural for them to be wakeful throughout the night...even though it’s tiring for us as parents.

It might not sound helpful, but when you’re totally shattered, perhaps see if your DH will kip in the spare room for a couple of nights...just to allow your DS to cosleep and you and DH to get some better quality rest. It’s not forever but 2nights of your DS sleeping longer between feeds will really make you feel better.

Then when you feel better rested, you’ll feel more able to cope with trying him in his cot.
Try placing a warm hot water bottle in his cot before you lay him down (remove before you put him in), make sure his eyelids have stopped twitching to show deep sleep, then move him over into cot...keeping your hands on his tummy until he settles still and you can remove them knowing he won’t wake.

Earlier that night, remove your own bed sheet without washing it and put that over his cot mattress, tucking it in around edges so secure. He will love your smell and unlike a loose nightie, won’t risk covering him in his sleep.

Hope those things might help slightly.

I'd go for a more gradual shift. Sidecar his cot to your bed, so he's near you but not in your bed. Then have the side back on, but still close. Then put him at the end of the bed. Then finally in his own room. Make the changes gradual, give him time to get used to each new phase before moving on to the next. It'll take ages, but should (in theory) be easier for him to adjust to - having you two feet away won't make much difference, so hopefully won't lead to the same disruption.