Hi all, I really need some advice from the wise mnetters here regarding my 1yr old's sleep!
He was ebf from birth and fed to sleep at bedtime and for all naps and whenever he woke in the night. Three months ago I decided I needed to do something as he was still waking 3-4 times a night. I started to teach him to self settle using gradual retreat in the hope that this would get him off to sleep nicely at bedtime and start to reduce the night wakings as he would be able to settle himself in the night rather than needing the boob.
This has been very up and down, up until a couple of weeks ago I had got to the stage where he has a bottle at bedtime, goes into cot awake and I sit next to the cot, maybe needing to put a hand in every now and then, but generally he'd go off to sleep by himself. Night wakings did reduce but not as much as I'd hoped, down to about 1am and 4/5 ish, not always going back to sleep after the second wake up.
A couple of weeks ago its all just gone really wrong, firstly the bedtime settling is regressing and I have endured a lot of screaming and even resorted to feeding to sleep again a few times as he was so distressed and almost out of control with his crying. Night wakings are much much worse, tending to wake about 10, 1, 3 then.hourly and generally not settling after 5 unless I'm holding him. I am spending a lot of the night sat holding him while he sleeps.
I am exhausted, I also have a very demanding 3.5yr old, DH has slept in the spare room for most of the last year, he has a demanding job but does as much as he can when he is at home but we are all suffering as a result of this sleep issue.
I would really welcome any advice and tips as to how I can sort out the self settling at bedtime (tonight felt like CIO while I was just sat next to the cot until I gave in and fed him to sleep which then makes me feel horribly guilty for putting him through the screaming in the first place) and how to reduce these night wakings.
I feel that it must be as simple as just not giving in but he has been so distressed a couple of nights in the last week that this seems pretty cruel.
Then last night on the other hand, I popped him in his cot awake, he pootled about a bit then lay down and went off to sleep within about 20 minutes with no crying and very little interaction from me, so I know he can do it.
He does seem to be teething, although didn't seem to cause an issue last night, and I know overtiredness makes bedtimes worse which was a factor tonight.
Thank you to anyone who has read this far, turned into a bit of an essay!! any advice would be great!
TIA 