Confusedand Tired - Which sleep strategies to try.....

[Clareypoo]

My 17 wk old is EBF and has never been a good sleeper. The most sleep ive had since he was born is 3 hrs! He has a night time routine that works well and is generally in his cot asleep 7ish (BF to sleep). He then wakes up every 2 hours.
Sometimes we can settle him back to sleep by picking him up and rocking him and sometimes he needs feeding(which is to be expected) but the constant waking is a strain, especially on DP who has to work.
I've read so much about sleep strategies and that I just now feel confused and am unsure how to proceed and improve the situation. I'm going back to work in a few weeks and need to do something...

Has anyone been Ina similar situation and had any success?
Any advice/ideas/books to try greatly appreciated
Thanks

Gina Ford

Have you thought about expressing and then your husband can do some of the night feeds. We did this and often slept in different rooms - that means the other can get a solid 6 hours at a time which makes it doable until they grow out of it. And I don’t know if it had anything to do with it but once we did bottles (with breast milk) at night she stopped waking up much and was sleeping through by 6 months

Thanx for the replies - unfortunately he won't take a bottle (we still try and have bought loads of different ones).
Just been talking to someone who has recommended shh pat technique.
Think I'm gonna give that a go......
Before I get confused again......

Sounds like you need to help your baby learn to self settle between sleep cycles if he's waking frequently as every 2 hours and doesn't need a feed every time. We used to find if we picked our DS up he would become more awake, angry crying and arching his back so take lots longer to eventually settle. Shhhh pat worked, as well as just putting hand on his chest and talking softly to him. Eventually we found he was able to resettle by himself.