My 19 month old DS has been a terrible sleeper since birth. He has only slept through the night 4 times (and by slept through I mean 9.00 until 4.30!) Most nights he wakes at least 3 times ? last night was a back breaking 5 times. I really don?t feel I can cope with this any longer . Me and my DH are at breaking point. It is really starting to effect our relationship to the point that he said he is moving into the spare room until little man sleeps through (my husband has a 200 mile round trip to work so needs to be alert). Btw he?s a wonderful DH so its not an attempt by him to get out of doing wakeups ? he generally needs to get some decent sleep.
Initially DS wouldn?t self settle which we managed to address using the gradual withdrawal method. We then addressed night feeds (previously we would offer milk at all wakings) which helped significantly as wake ups were 2 on a bad night and one on a good night. We were also bringing him into out bed over xmas out of complete exhaustion. Again, we no longer do this. Unfortunately over the last couple of weeks he seems have gone back 10 steps for some reason
I?m not adverse to doing CC ? we did a gentler version in the past when night weaning. The only issue is that he bangs his head on the cot repeatedly until either me or my husband go into his room. By this point he?s throwing himself around the cot and can only be settled with a bottle of milk (we now only give him a bottle if his waking is after 4am). What should we do when he bangs his head against the cot ? ignore or let him continue?! It appears as though if we don?t give him a bottle at dawn he?ll continue to cry and bang his head so should we fully re-introduce it in the hope that he?ll drink it and sleep until 7 again? (Both me and my DH work full time so a 4.30am start everyday would be very difficult! I also have an underactive thyroid so feel rough at the best of times !)
If we reintroduce the milk will this encourage further night wakings? Not sure if I could cope if we don?t though !
He has a consistent bedtime routine and self settles at night.
Please advise as I really don?t know what to do?.