I’ve posted about my sons sleep before, he’s never really settled since the 4 month regression and we’ve bed shared since then using a sidecar cot to try and get him used to his own sleep space. We’ve had some success with this when he was 6/7 months when he started to sleep on his tummy (rolling both ways) and settled down to 2 wake ups a night easily settled with a feed - I felt like a new woman!! Then teething hit and it all went to pieces again, now he’s just learnt to crawl and pull to stand and the last week things have just deteriorated and I don’t know what to do for the best.
At bedtime he goes into his sidecar cot awake and with a bit of bum patting goes to sleep no problem about 7.30, for about 2 or 3 hours. Problem is once he wakes in the night the only thing that will settle him is boob and he’s been waking every hour or 2 if I’m lucky. From about 4am the last week or so he has been so restless, awake every half hour or so and then needing constant back rubbing/bum patting to keep him settled. I’m on my knees, I’m in tears in the night and sometimes finding myself scratching my arms or hitting myself in the head. I feel physically ill all the time from such broken sleep and I’m having heart palpitations and dizzy spells. I go back to work in 2 weeks and will have to get up at 6 and drive for an hour across a busy city centre. I so don’t want to sleep train him because I’ve read so much about how important it is to be responsive at night but I’m scared for my mental health and my safety driving.
Before this latest deterioration I was getting just enough sleep to cope and my husband was taking a week off in August when he will be nearly one to tackle night weaning in the hope that will improve sleep, but I don’t know if I can hold out until then if sleep continues to be this bad.
We have ordered some proper black out blinds to see if that helps the 4am restlessness. Also he has started crawling a few weeks ago and pulling to stand which I know can affect sleep, will this pass as he settles into these new skills? I am giving him lots of time in the day to practice.
I have read the ‘what worked for us’ mumsnet thread and wondered if that might be a place to start. I do like bedsharing with the sidecar cot when it works, I love having him close and not having to get up when he wakes but at the moment it just isn’t working.
Thank you if you’ve read this far!!