Hi all,
I'm a first time mum and hoping you can help me. My 8mo baby is waking every 1-2 hours at night. He settles almost immediately with a cuddle and occasionally he has needed a bottle once in the night. Once he is settled I put him back down in his bedside cot, and an hour - two hours later he will wake up crying again. He is still in our room, and I think it is time to move him, but I'm worried about the wake ups and being even more exhausted. We could put him down drowsy as a newborn, but we haven't been able to do that as an older baby - he will just cry until he's picked up and I've never really let him cry. I do tend to have a lot of contact naps as well, I love them but I'm also so exhausted that it just seems like the easiest option as I struggle to get him to sleep in his cot. I know I'm doing things wrong so will happily take any advice so I can improve things and get some sleep for us all would be great.
He does also have his first nap after ah hour in the morning, which I think is because he's tired from waking up at night. He's exhausted after an hour of awake time but can easily go 3+ hours between the rest of his naps.
An average day is like this, although it's different every day - perhaps I need to stick to exact times?
6.45-7am wake up, 7oz bottle
8am sleep (30-45 mins on average)
8.30-9am breakfast
10am ish 7oz bottle
12-12.30 7oz bottle
12ish nap (can be 30 mins - 1.30 - seems to depend how long morning nap was)
1-1.30pm lunch
3pm 7oz
3ish nap (usually 30-45 mins)
5pm dinner
6.30pm 7oz
7pm bed
He doesn't always finish the 7oz in one go.
Thank you for any advice 