finding it really hard to get sleep routine for poor DS2..

[alannabanana]

...and as a result he's still waking loads at night. he's coming up 8months (DS1 is 2.3yr) and obviously our day revolves around DS1's activities - toddler groups/playdates etc - so poor ds2 doesnt get anywhere near the level of care and dilligence from me for his sleep training that ds1 had. i feel really guilty about that.
he has 3 good meals per day and 3 x 7oz FF per day, but he often will take up to 8oz during the night if he's particularly wakeful - is this just comfort feeding? or habit? with ds1, pretty much as soon as he was on 3 meals a day he started to sleep thru. but we were able to leave him to cry a lot more - obviously we dont want the baby to wake ds1 so i tend to go in to him fairly quickly (he's a big lad and his cry is more like a pained yell, and super loud!)
any advice on what i should i do next?? i feel like we're at a junction where i can choose to let this continue or i can take some action to get him sleeping thru...but what???
am knackered by the time ds1 jumps into bed with me at 6.30am bright eyed and ready to start the day. thank god for dh on the weekends!

ps - teething is a big factor as well - they're giving him a lot of jip and although he's been teething since 4months, none have appeared yet!

I feel your pain OP, although I only have one child. DD will be 8m in a week time and she has never slept through. Most nights she will wake ur three times and always co-sleeping. I only feed her at night if she did not have three meals during the day. She drinks 360mls to 540mls of milk per day.

Same boat ladies.
My DS is 6 months and We are having problems. He is on 3 meals a day and 4 5oz bottles, sometimes 5. He goes to bed no problem at 7:30pm, wakes at 11-12am for a feed, then wakes again at 3am-4am and I sometimes feed if he needs it. But even if I feed he most of the time will not go back to sleep. Not quite awake, but thrusting and generally unsettled.
As a result I am surviving on 5 hours sleep anight :(

Some night are good, but the last few have been tough. He has 2 teeth and I think teething is the problem. A friend recommended Mediced. I am going to try it tonight and pray for a good night sleep. And we are in the dreaded 6 month growth spurt stage :(

Oh well, things can only get better... right?

I hope so too. Have stopped worrying myself and trying not to compare my DD wit other babies. As they say, every child is different, i'm different and my environment is also different.

hey ladies. yes we are sleep deprived survivors arent we!
6-8mth is definitely a killer time with teeth and growth spurts to contend with, but it does get better as they get older. its important to get routines in place and give them clear signals about what is bed-time - which is where we've been failing with ds2. ds1 had a very strict bedtime that we rarely deviated from - lots of people thought i was a neurotic nutbar but it paid off because he was a 7 til 7 sleeper from early on. ds2 on the other hand, gets hardly any consistancy with his naps and bedtime, purely through lack of time.
since posting the original message here he's had the first tooth thru (yay! ) so hopefully his pain will subside soon.

hang in there ladies xx