So ds is coming up on 8 months old and is ebf. He has been in the next to me cot since we brought him home and honestly I would have kept him in it forever because it worked really well for us especially with him feeding during the night. However he's got too big for it now and is much too mobile for it to be safe for him and our bedroom is too small to fit a cot into and our bed too small to safely cosleep. So I've moved him into his nursery. We've let him play in it lots during the day to get used to the room and the cot and he's been happy enough doing that. We've had a really consistent bedtime routine that works great for him and he goes down in the cot for his naps and his nights sleep brilliant. Even falls asleep in the cot if he's drowsy enough when I put him in.
Here's my issue- his naps he will now wake after 20 minutes like clockwork. And I cannot get him back over unless he's physically sleeping on me. Normally he would have slept in his next to me for 2hrs in the morning and then 40-60min at other nap times very consistently.
At night he will go to sleep like a dream about 7.30/8pm and sleeps like a log. Until 1am when he wakes for a feed and then again I cannot get him back over no matter what. He will only sleep on me. The second I try to transfer him back into the cot eyes ping open and he starts crying and won't go back over. This has been lasting until 6am by which point I'm so exhausted and scared I'm going to fall asleep sitting up and drop him I end up bringing him into bed with me which I don't feel great about just for him to sleep until 7.30 and that's him up for the day. Again when he was in beside us he'd have woken maybe twice at night, fed and gone straight back over again.
I follow the same routine every time, feed, cuddles and story, he goes over or close to it and then try to set him in. It works initially but not for resettling. I've tried holding him sleeping in my arms for longer like 20-30 minutes but he just wakes the second he feels the cot. Similarly I've tried getting him down again lying in bed like we would have before and then trying to move him over- this works better and I can get him into the cot asleep but he wakes again after about 20 minutes. I know it's not been super long just a few weeks but im running on fumes and dh is working antisocial shifts so can't help me with it. I've even started sleeping in the nursery to try and get a little bit more sleep and help him feel less lonely in it but I want to get back to my bed.
Has anyone been through this? How long did it take? Any advice would be highly appreciated.