Losing the plot

[lucidlady]

8.5 month old DS is incapable of sleeping for longer than 45 minutes before he wakes himself up and then gets extremely distressed. He went to bed at 730pm and has woken up crying after 47 minutes, 45 minutes, 6 minutes, 20 something minutes and now 15 minutes. If we lift him he'll go back over very quickly. If we don't lift him, he wakes up fully and it can take ages to get him to sleep again. I am going back to work FT tomorrow and I'm sitting here in tears because I'm so fucking tired. He usually ends up in with us around 1am as I'm hallucinating by that point but even then he'll want to feed constantly so I still don't get any sleep. No family nearby that can help and DH does his best but DS won't settle for him.

Can anyone help? I don't want to do CC if at all possible. Thanks in advance

You poor thing. Would it be worth taking him into bed with you earlier, so that you avoid the 1am bit, though appreciate that you're not going to get brilliant quality sleep when he's in with you.

Oh if only he'd have a dummy I don't think you'll be able to establish one this late though.

Like PP, I think accepting and embracing co-sleeping may be the best way for you to get some decent sleep.

or, given that you are now back at work, how about night weaning an completely swapping with your DP at night? Get DP to do all the wake ups and all the settling and all the co-sleeping if needed.

At least that will (a) mean she doesn't expect to feed at night and, (b) not need you, so that you can share the load.