I'm getting to the end of my tether.
LO has never been great at SS, we haven't done any PUPD, CC, CIO etc. but did encourage him to fall asleep in his cot, staying with him, stroking him etc. at 9 months which worked a treat (he rarely got upset at all and drifted off happily), and he has either SS with us there or had a quick rock if ill etc. since and on the whole slept through since then.
7 weeks ago, during a very bad stomach bug, he ditched his dummy and since then things have gone from bad to worse. He won't fall asleep in his cot, won't be rocked, cuddled, won't co-sleep or lay in bed with me / us. He cries if we pick him up, cries if we lay him down... He was going to sleep in his pram and then being transferred but this is now mostly unacceptable to him as well, he will only fall asleep in the car. The other night he went to bed ok (was so exhausted from barely napping), but then woke at 930 p.m. and didn't go back down until 11.45, which was through us taking him out in the car. AT QUARTER TO MIDNIGHT!
The house is a tip, the small bit of work I do from home isn't happening, we aren't getting an evening half the time, the days are full of nap stress, I'm feeling so fed up and can no longer take comfort in this being a phase as it's been so long and is getting worse, not better. I have thought this morning about CC - it's never been what we've wanted to do (I don't think it is anyone's first choice!) but previously, we were happy to wait it out, stay with him, co-sleep etc. because he was ok with this. Now, he is crying anyway, whatever we do, but we're not getting anywhere and it's been weeks so he isn't learning anything and we are just getting more stressed and I'm fine to admit that I'm running out of patience and am starting to think the only solution is some formal sleep training.
Lastly, we tried cutting his morning nap a few weeks ago thinking this could be one of the problems but he was just exhausted - couldn't keep him awake past 11/1130, then he was only sleeping for 50 minutes - over tiredness I guess, and though the bed times were sometimes easier because of it, I really don't think it was right for him overall as he was so knackered. He's always been quite a sleepy baby in the day, having around 2.5-3 hours - I'm fine to cut this back if it's affecting the bed times, but there doesn't seem to be a middle ground - or I can't find it as 50 minutes per day definitely isn't enough!
Thanks if you made it this far - any advice very welcome.