7mo terrible sleeper, bad habits, exhausted, help

[happilyLostCareer]

DS (7.5mo) has been a terrible sleeper since about 2 months old. I have tried and tried to instil good habits lile not feeding to sleep, not sleeping on me, lots of sleep in the cot during the day... it's got so bad that I feed him to sleep every time, daytime naps are on me or in the pram, and he often spends at least half the night sleeping on me.

He goes to sleep about 6, sleeps heavily til 7, wakes crying, is soothed and fed back to sleep by 8, sleeps well til 10.30 ish, wakes crying, then feeds/ wriggles/ chats/ cries instantly if put down for about 3 hours (sometimes til 3am), then sleeps in 30 minute stretches (crying on waking) until we get up at 7. If I let him sleep on the boob he may sleep for 2 hours at a time, but I get no sleep because I am terrified I'll drop him or he'll roll/ get smothered.

Daytime naps are something like 9-10, 11-1.30, 3-4.30, or if there is stuff on in the morning, brief catnap and then 1-4pm solid sleep walking home in pram / on me (not waking when transferred).

Yes, the habits are all wrong. I am exhausted. I hope that he might sleep longer on his own, and that feeding to sleep may stop by itself. Realistcally though they may not stop on a timescale relevant to my ability to cope.

DH has offered to try taking DS in the evenings, and cosleeping (DS in cot by bed) with him, bringing him to me for 12am & 5am feeds, for a week. But DH can't do more than a week, and snores like a train. So I am not sure it's going to work.

Suggestions??

Should say, I sleep in DS's room in a bed right next to his cot. DH sleeps in our bedroom. Proposed sleep training idea would mean DH and I swap beds for a week.

Also both our beds are singles so cosleeping with DS lying in the bed won't work. Closest we can do is cot with side down, against the bed.

My DS was getting like this at 3 months. I stopped breast feeding and he's brilliant now. He just has 1 or 2 formula fèeds and sleeps all night otherwise on his cot.

How is he getting on with his solids?

Firstly you need a couple of nights sleep and help so you can think clearly.

Then I would tackle daytime naps. Try and get one decent nap (ideally in the morning) and 1 or 2 cat naps. 6 might be a little early for bed. Does the baby have a bath every night? If so could you keep he/she in there a bit longer to stretch it out? Even till 615 on night 1 620 on night 2 till you get to 630/645?

Then hope that nights start to stretch out.

Dd1 was a horrific sleeper and it's awful when you can't think straight. Good luck

Are you me?? My DS is exactly the same, apart from the feeding to sleep. Somehow I've ended up cosleeping, DS is rocked to sleep and naps on me. No idea how I ended up here and feel like I've majorly messed up.

No real help I'm afraid but you're not alone. Lots of non-sleeping 7-8 mth olds on here lately, did we all get a malfunctioning batch?

...and now we have the mother of all colds as well. So sleep training idea goes out the window i guess

I feed him to sleep every time, daytime naps are on me or in the pram, and he often spends at least half the night sleeping on me.

I don't see a problem with doing these things if they work. I just fed DS to sleep ten minutes ago! Who cares? He's not going to need a bottle forever, and it's a pretty easy way to soothe him to sleep even when he's a toddler surely?

8mo DS is at nursery (god knows how those wizards get him to sleep in a cot, but they do!) but when he was at home he slept on me. I used to stress about it, and then I just thought, meh, he's happy, I get cuddles, it's all good.

I started cosleeping about a month ago too. I'm terrified of SIDS but the numbers of babies at 7/8mo who are affected is tiny and we have very few of the risk factors (DS is ff, but so are most babies his age; I don't drink or smoke). Also he's a big strong lad now. If the risk is unacceptable to you then that's completely understandable, but I weighed it up and it's working for us. Plus I quite like waking up to his wee smiley face

There's a lot of talk online about 'making a rod for your own back' but as far as I can see it's either a rod now or a rod later! And I'd like some sleep now please...

Fartniss I generally agree, but for DS to sleep longer or put himself back to sleep at night, something has to change. I would happily leave all this the way it is but I am exhausted, run down & sick and I just desperately crave sleep. Something has got to change.