Extremely fragmented sleep at 7.5months! Please help!!
Hi guys, I am a FTM to a 7.5 month old boy. Sleep has always been a challenge for our little boy. For example, he has only ever really contact napped (with the occasional pram/car nap) and he co-sleeps with me too (which I love btw). He is EBF. I want to create a safe and strong bond with my baby, I’ve always followed his cues and gone with the flow with co-sleeping etc. However my baby hit the ‘4 month sleep regression’ hard, and we haven’t ever really come out of it. I do a bedtime routine at around 7.30-8pm (he is exhausted at this point) and he goes asleep with a soother. However most nights he wakes every 30 minutes. We are very lucky if we get an hour stretch out of him. I usually feed him back to sleep, but sometimes this doesn’t work, and he can be awake for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. I am posting here because I feel I have hit a huge wall in terms of fatigue and tiredness. Despite my husband trying to give me some time in the spare room, this generally doesn’t work as often baby will just want the boob when he wakes and my husband cannot sooth him. I don’t feel comfortable going down any sleep training route, but at the same time, but body feels like it is falling apart due to broken sleep for the past 3.5 months, and am finding I am really struggling to get through the day. Has anyone ever been through this kind of experience? I often hear of babies waking 2-3 times per night, but not to the extent that we are experiencing. He doesn’t nap excessively, and I’ve researched so much on wake windows/lots of playtime/avoiding excessive naps to support night sleep. I.e I feel I have done everything within my means, while still being there for him and supporting his needs. But nothing has worked and I’m at my wits end!! Please help