u/No_Excitement8615

Alright guys, I’m ready to sleep train.

I have an 8-month-old (born October 1st) and he just won’t sleep anymore. When he was first born, he was actually a pretty good sleeper. Around 2 months old, he started refusing to nap in his bassinet. I decided it was more important for him to get sleep than for him to sleep in the bassinet, so I’ve been contact napping ever since.

I’ve tried putting him down for naps in his own bed countless times, but he wakes up the second I lay him down, no matter how carefully I do it.

As for nights, he’s never slept through them. When he was younger and sleeping in his bassinet, he’d usually wake around 10:30 PM, 1 AM, 3 AM, and 6 AM to eat. Then he got sick one night and was screaming so much that I ended up co-sleeping with him. I noticed he woke up less when we co-slept, so that became our routine.

Things were ok for a while, but then he developed a bad case of cradle cap that kept waking him up all night. We treated it and it hasn’t come back, but his sleep never recovered.

Now he wakes up frequently to nurse. If I don’t nurse him, he cries intensely. We have a very consistent bedtime routine, so I know he recognizes that it’s bedtime, but he still won’t stay asleep.

Lately it’s gotten even worse. When he wakes up, he’s not fussing. he’s crying and screaming hard with tears streaming down his face. I nurse him, he falls asleep, and then the moment I unlatch him so I can get comfortable, he wakes up upset again. I can’t roll over, adjust my position, watch TV, talk to my partner, or do anything without waking him.

I’m really worn down and exhausted, I miss spending time with my partner in the evenings.

The problem is that every time I try to stop nursing him back to sleep, he cries so hard that he ends up coughing and gagging. Eventually I get overwhelmed and give in.

At this point I’m considering CIO, but I’m worried he’ll just cry for hours and never actually go to sleep. For those of you who have done it, when do you give in? Does giving in set you back or make it harder for them to learn to sleep independently?