My 8 month old refuses to settle at night/bedtime.
He has a bottle before bed (though sometimes he only managed 3/4 ounces and then wakes up a couple of hours later for the rest). He goes to bed somewhere between. 7/8.
He has his tea between 5/6, has a bath, has quiet time and stories and then milk. As soon as we put him in his cot he cries. He has a dummy, we stay in the room reading stories to him whilst he's in his cot so he knows we're there and nothing works. It's been like this since he was born.
I have tried dream feeding, co sleeping, sleeping in his own room, sleeping in our room and nothing works. Sometimes he wakes between 5-7 times in the night. The only way to get him to stop screaming and settle is with a bottle... Sometimes he has more than 12 ounces throughout the night yet still wakes up every hour/couple of hours and cannot resettle. I have tried water and I'm sure he's not hungry. He had breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks on fruit/breadsticks throughout there day.
Sometimes if he's crying we stand outside his room and if he starts screaming we go in and he starts laughing and thinks it's a game. Throughout the night though, it's impossible to get him back to sleep unless we give him a bottle. Even this doesn't work sometimes as he will settle, start drifting off and then as soon as he doesn't want anymore, he starts crying again.
I have this problem in the day too. It's a nightmare trying to get him to nap. I try and get him to sleep at the same time each day, but it never goes to plan. I think he's overtired and can't settle. He never sleeps for long periods. Whether he's in his bouncer, pushchair or cot, he usually sleeps for half an hour and is awake again. I've tried getting him back to sleep but it's impossible. Then half an hour later he's tired again.
He constantly gets himself worked up and starts kicking his right leg constantly when he's tired and rolls around, gets his legs stuck in his his crib etc and starts screaming. Then when we get him to calm down, he starts getting excited smiling laughing and squealing.
Me and DP are at a loss what to do. It's wearing us both down. I'm at uni full time and work on my days off and my DP starts work at 7.30. We're exhausted and we don't see an end in sight. Can anyone please offer any suggestions?
It is worth adding that DS is a really loud baby and during the daytime squeals with excitement/happiness. He's always shouting and before bedtime is usually the worst. We live in a terraced so I am really conscious of the neighbours & don't like leaving him crying too long in case they think we're not bothered with him.