Help! my 8mo wakes several times a night, sometimes hourly

[NocturnalNonsense]

I'm on the verge of exhaustion - actually, well and truely past it and in the deepest, darkest depths of it! My ds has never been a good sleeper and has only on occassion slept for more than 3 hours in a row. He goes down to sleep at 7pm no problems: will bf til his drousy then to bed with dummy. He's more settled for the first part of the night, til about 1 or 2am (has bottle at 10/11pmish). But then it's a nightmare! He'll wake at least 2x and more recently hourly. Refuses his dummy, may have a little feed which sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't. I think he's teething (but have been saying that for months). He's still unsettled after painrelief. I don't know what to do - has anyone got a miracle solution or, failing that, just some plain old advise?

ditch the feeding him until he is drowsy - it sounds like his sleep association.

I would also recommend a trip to the cranial osteopath - I ended up taking dd3 when she was nearly 4 - wish I'd taken her much sooner!

8/9 months is a big growth spurt time, DS was a nightmare at that point. It is prob teeth as well. Can you get some rest during the day?

Difficult to get sleep during the day and starting back at work (3 days) in jan - arghh! Will try to catch up over chrismas a bit though.
He can go down wide awake at times and drop off no probs so not so sure if it's sleep association.
What's the idea behind cranial osteopathy?

they look for teeny tiny stuff on their skull that is not quite right and help move it to how it should be. Often it is just caused by childbirth whether natural or c-section, quick or slow it can all cause "tensions" on the skull plates which give them headaches etc

did you find it helped?

Yes hugely she was never a great sleeper I went out of desperation in the summer as she would get up 3 or 4 times per night often 5 or 6 nights on the trot and she was just awake nothing wrong. By this time she was nearly 4 and would go back to bed herself etc but I couldn't hack the broken nights anymore.

Since the 2nd treatment she has woken up a handful of nights once in 6 months because of a bad dream. She also started getting to sleep more quickly too.

I took all of mine as young babies has they had tight jaws which made b/f very painful again there was improvement after the first session and they only needed about 3/4 sessions each to fix it.