Sorry for the essay in advance!
DS is nearly 5 months and has never been the best sleeper but got better and better until 3 months then it all went to hell! Started waking more frequently, resisting naps, waking after 30-45 mins but I could resettle him fairly easily (he goes to sleep by me patting him while he is in his cot) classic sleep regression stuff. This went on for about 6 weeks and started to improve, started having longer naps of about an hour/hour and a half and having longer stretches at night so we thought we had come out of the other side (hurray!)… Then DS developed a viral infection and things got much worse! We put it down to him being ill but now 2 weeks after it has cleared up his sleep is worse than ever. Naps are basically none existent unless I hold him, he usually goes 1.5hours before needing a sleep but lately he is getting miserable after 1.25 so I try him then but he just screams then wakes after 30-45mins crying and there is no resettling him. At bedtime he now wakes after 2 and a half hours of going down and is awake every 45mins/2 hours until we get up in the morning (he is mainly breastfed to sleep at bedtime). If I try and resettle him by patting him he wakes after 45 mins and takes an age to settle but if I feed him he lasts 2 hours before waking again and wanting another feed. I guess what I’m asking is should I feed after every wake even though he used to go 6 hours without a feed? Or am I creating ‘bad habits’? At nap times should I try and lengthen them by holding him or again am I creating ‘bad habits’? Should I shorten his awake windows if he is so miserable I assume from being overtired? So hard to know what to do for the best being a FTM and just wanted to know your experiences.