9.5 month old’s sleep - need help!!!

[SillyScroller]

My 9.5 has been waking 2-6 times a night since he was 2 months old, sometimes more. I can manage 2/3 wake ups just about but when he goes half an hour-ish stretches I’m so tired. I have tried different things to promote a good night’s sleep. I can tell he’s exhausted too. I tried Ferber at about 6 months and it was fairly successful and didn’t involve more crying than usual and wasn’t that upset but then he got ill and it didn’t work as well and I couldn’t bear the crying. Our night routine is as follows after our evening meal: bath, feed, books, in bed awake, leave to settle and if upset I pat to sleep or cuddle. His room is dark, there’s white noise on and he is in a sleeping bag. In the day I follow wake windows roughly of 2.5/3/4. I have tracked his sleep on an app since he was born. Can anyone tell me where I’m going wrong!? I don’t think he’s getting enough day sleep and is overtired. Photos attached show 2 different weeks, some nights are a lot worse than others but I’m so tired and am starting to lose confidence that it’ll fall into place at some point!

God babies are a nightmare aren’t they. How is he getting back to sleep at night? Breastfeeding? I remember 9 months being a particularly bad time especially as you’re kind of hoping it’ll get better by then… my son didn’t start sleeping in proper chunks until around a year, then improved massively when we got him to fall asleep by himself and he dropped the second nap around 16 months I think. So all to say yes it will eventually get better… This is an odd suggestion but do you think you might feel better if you stopped tracking sleep, particularly at night? I did it for a while but eventually felt it made me feel more anxious, and more aware of how tired I was, if that makes sense.

@Lelongducanal Thank you for your really kind response. I almost feel bad complaining about his current sleep as I know some people are up for ages between the wake ups but it still takes its toll. Yes breastfeeding is what is getting him back to sleep, sometimes I can get him back with a pat or short cuddle but often it’s only a feed that sends him back. That’s reassuring that it did get better at 1 year for you. I know what you mean I’ve wondered if I should stop doing it but I do find it very useful too!

Is he active during the day? Does he play with other babies? I'd honestly suggest trying to eliminate one of his naps and get him as active as possible so that he's tired out. I know with my guy, I had terrible times if he didn't get enough movement during the day. But when I got him out and about I slept a lot better (because he did).

I would have your husband do the night wakings and only offer water.

we sleep trained at 5m as I was broken. We used to wake baby up at 10pm for a feed then she would sleep until 6am, quick feed then sleep until 8ish.

baby doesn’t need a night feed if they’re having 3 meals a day and milk throughout the day. You’ll probably have a rough two nights for hubby but then it’ll stop