My little man is 19 weeks old and a good 18lb and very healthy. I'm struggling to find advice on our issue, he dropped the middle of the night feed over three weeks ago but is so restless in the early hours that we have to settle him over and over or he wakes himself up. (Settling for us usually means replacing dummy - very sucky baby - or stroking head, arms.)
He's never slept for long periods, but mum and dad are so shattered with at best a 3 hour block of sleep each night... any advice / strategies / experience welcome. This is a normal night;
7 - 8pm Bedtime (after a bath and feed, sleeps in crib & grobag)
Sleeps well (maybe one quick settle) until 10 / 11pm feed (usually very sleepy during this and settles straight back to sleep)
Sleeps well
Around 1.30 (sometimes earlier / later) starts one or more of 'jiggling, rolling, wimpering, head fussing, crying' and we are in and out of the crib settling many times until morning.
6 - 7am wakes nicely smiling and happy in his crib, gentle play then a feed.
He does scale up and wake up if we don't settle him as we've tried letting him self settle. I know the dummy might be an issue, but he does fall asleep without it and pushes it out. Also seems very keen to be more mobile. He's formula fed, feeds well (plenty) during the day and has 3x45 minute naps.
Really hoping not to have to use a cry it out approach, but any advice is more than welcome. I'm just desperate to have a 5 hour stretch of sleep each night to be more able to cope with the days for my boy :)