I am not even sure why I am posting as I think I will just have to ride the wave and this is going to be an essay, but just in case someone has a magic cure...
DS has never been a good sleeper, he was exclusively BF and co-sleeping but in general didn´t sleep more than around 3 hours at a time without waking up and was very boob dependent. I even resorted to breastfeeding him mid-nap as otherwise he wasnt sleeping anywhere near enough.
I think around 18 months (sorry, hazy memory due to lack of sleep= he started sleeping in his own bed at night in our bedroom. He would start the night there and then, depending on how many times and how long the wakings were I may or may not transfer him to our bed.
Then I got pregnant and I noticed that the boob was actually keeping him awake distracted rather than sending him back to sleep as there was virtually no milk coming out so at 2 yo I night-weaned him. This took 6 hard weeks of screaming at night and having a very angry child for long periods before he would resettle. Then, to my surprise, I thought we had cracked it as he did a 10 day period of sleeping 9 hours straight every night, hooray!!
However, that all went to pot as his upper canines started coming through. He takes forever with his teething so he started waking up more and more frequently. Also he started to refuse sleep quite vehemently, getting very angry both at nap time and bed time. He now doesn't really get angry but will not shut up, if you are telling him a story he wants you to change it, if you sing him a song he joins in and if you tell him to be quiet he just won't so it's taking over an hour to get him to fall asleep. This involves story and songs and me lying next to him or sometimes even picking him up in my arms until he falls asleep (I know, I know...).
So, it's now taking over an hour to get him to sleep and he is waking every bloody two hours in the night (although generally goes back to sleep within 5 minutes). I am 34 weeks pregnant and dreading the months to come if this doesn't improve and we add a newborn to the mix....
I don't think I can leave him to cry on his own as a) this is not in my nature and b) I think he is too old for that and will just get more and more worked up, etc.
Thank you for reading this far, I know I am asking for the impossible but any suggestions will be welcome.