My 7 1/2 month old has never slept through the night, not even close. We've had a bedtime routine in place since he was a few weeks old, I don't rock or feed him to sleep. I do still do a night feed because he's not putting on weight that fast. He is up every few hours screaming. Sometimes I can just give him a sip of water or pat his head and he'll go back to sleep, but especially more often lately he won't.
I try leaving him for a couple of minutes to settle himself but for the last couple of months as soon as I leave the room he immediately flips over onto his tummy or sits up and then can't get back to sleep from that position. Most times when he wakes up he's on his tummy. I feel this prevents me from any sort of sleep training because I can't be sure that he's not on his tummy if I leave him and he'll just get more upset. He then starts his day at 5am.
I usually end up taking him into bed with me early in the morning and then we get an hour or so extra sleep. But this isn't the way that I want to go.
I've been referred to the local NHS sleep clinic three times but have yet to hear anything from them. The health visitor support isn't great, I see a different one at clinic each time and they all say different things. I've only seen 'my' health visitor twice and not for about 4 months.
It makes everything so hard and really stops me from enjoying him during the day because we are all so tired and grumpy. My dh and I snap at each other because we've not had a full nights sleep in a long time. I get so jealous of my friends who have babies that sleep for 12 hours, it must look as though we're doing something wrong.
I'm not due back to work until January, but I really thought he'd be sleeping better by now. Even a regular 5-6 hour stretch would be lovely!
Please tell me it gets better? Because I'm really struggling at the moment.