Sleep Boot Camp! Who's with me???

[whozeyermamma]

Ok - so I think I've reached the point of no return. Last night, a typical night for us - 8-month-old DS was down by 8:30 pm up at 11 pm, 12 am, 1 am, 2 am - then awake and fussing, or just alert until 3:30 then slept till 6:30.

This is killing me.

So I'm going to do some gentle sleep "training" as much as I hate that word - mostly from No cry sleep solution. I'm going to post my plan and results here - and I want to see if anyone else wants to change their sleep situation at the same time. It's going to be a rough transition - but maybe it will help if I'm not alone!!!

Anyone else????

Here is my plan:

1. I'm going to start trying to get him down earlier - say 7 or 7:30. This means I have to adjust his afternoon nap.I actually think he might be ready to go to one nap so we'll see how that goes. But now he's barely napping in the AM and taking a 2 hr nap in the afternoon, but now it's a little on the late side - till 4 or so.

2. At bedtime, I'm going to nurse him until he's full and sleepy but awake - not rock/nurse him into a coma, like I usually do. I'll put him down (he sleeps on his belly in the crib in our room.) and try to leave the room. If he starts to cry harder than a mild fuss, I'll pick him up and calm him down and put him back down sleepy but not asleep. We also use a binky so I'll try that too. Apparently I'll need to do this for a while before I he'll fall asleep in the crib. (He sleeps either in his crib or in our bed, but even when he's in our bed he doesn't like to be on top of me or next to me, he kind of seems to need his space.)

3. When he nightwakes - if it's been less than 2 hrs, I'm not going to nurse him, but just sooth him by rocking, holding, etc. I might try to send DH in for these ones.

4. I might try to soothe him by stroking and touching him in the crib without picking him up, depending on how it's going.

5. If it has been 2 hrs since his last waking - I'll nurse him but not into a coma and try the put down thing.

6. Apparently, the point is that at first you have to pick them up and comfort them, but after a while you can just comfort them in the crib, and then you can come into the room, and then just call in from the room. At some point, they usually drop one of those feedings.

At this point, he's not sleeping at night, I'm not sleeping at night, and many nights he spends hours fussing and crying in my arms - it's not like it's working. I have no idea if or how this is going to work.

I think I'm going to start doing it next week - I need a little time to gear up for it. Does anyone else have a plan or want to change something about their sleep? Move baby to their own space? Drop a night feeding? Get them to fall asleep on their own? Do it with me!!!!!!

[Unlikely Mama]

How long is your baby awake between naps and before BT? The max wake time for a well- rested 8mo is 3 hrs. I doubt your son is ready for one nap-the early end of that transition is 11-12mos. More likely he is just extremely OT & fighting sleep as a result. Have you tried toying with wake times? The 2-3-4 routine starts to not work as babies get older. You might try shifting his first WT by 15 mins a day for the next couple days until you're closer to 2.5 hrs. If the last WT of the day is too long because you're trying to keep an arbitrary "bedtime" instead of honoring what is age-appropriate, you'll have an OT baby on your hands, resulting in more BT battles. Most babies need an early BT, especially those with multiple night wakings, in order to clock enough night sleep. Doing EBT with my DD-now 11 mos-changed our sleep lives entirely. At 8 mo she was almost always asleep by 5:30pm because her naps weren't great. The later I put her to bed, the worse she slept. Try it consistently for a week and I bet you'll see results. GL!

[sere234]

Well, I'm joining you for the sleep boot camp! Not for normal nap/night sleeping though. My kiddo naps well and sleeps 2-3 hour stretches at night!!! I'm happy with that because it used to be 1 hour naps ALL night .

My big problem is the DOG. Caden used to startle when the dog barked but now he wakes and stays awake.... And the dog likes to let me know anytime there's an odd sound within 100 yards of the house. Often. 

So I need Caden to sleep through barking. Not "nonstop, someone's at the door" barking but "that was a weird sound and I'm going to let you know about it" barking. Because apparently there are lots of weird sounds around here that I need to be warned of!

SOO- starting tomorrow I will: Put C to sleep. Let him sleep about 30 min. Let the dog bark a couple times. Settle C back to sleep. Repeat during every nap.

Crazy that I'm training the baby but not the dog.

[SeattleRain]

Try a white noise cd, try it really loud. Daniel sleeps with white noise and it totally helps. We've had like, 20 people in our living room right outside his door with the white noise and have had him sleep right through it.

I second the suggestion of early bedtimes and not dropping the first nap. Sleep begets sleep, and she's totally not ready for one nap. The days where my son sleeps oly one nap are horrible, but he's really hyper and happy looking so to the naked eye it seems like he's fine. Really he has "baby mania" and is super happy only to super crash. Good luck!

[expat-mama]

We're starting boot camp here too. Rather, gentle booty camp.

Just started our No Cry Sleep Solution plan last night. Ugh... didn't go so well, but we're sticking with it. We're slowly pushing back DS's bedtime from 8 to 7pm. I'm doing the Pantley pull off to try to get him nursing to sleep for a shorter amount of time and hopefully eventually not only nursing to sleep. DH is getting up to soothe him back to sleep when he wakes up instead of me putting him to the boob immediately.

Last night, our first night, DH was able to soothe DS back down to sleep once out of 5 wakings. For the other 4 wakings, DS was so worked up from not getting the boob immediately that it took me twice as long to nurse him down when we did finally decide to go back to the boob after DH's tries.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. This morning I feel like resting my head on block of ice in the freezer.

[Laurski]

I'll join in...although right now our main goal is to wean her of the nipple-sleep association.  Once we have that sorted out, DH and I are going to assess where we are with naps and night sleeping.  I'm hoping Pantley's right that breaking the nipple-sleep association will help babies sleep longer...right now we're at a 3 hour sleep maximum at night, and it's getting tougher and tougher to get up in the morning for work...

So, starting this weekend, the great Pantley pull-off experiment begins!  (I am such a wuss, though, because I'm scared that I'll just have a really cranky, PO'd non-sleeping baby on my hands!)

Bon Courage!

[whozeyermamma]

Whoo-hoo! Go mammas!

Well, I was going to start to try to push back the bedtime today but we wound up at our neighbors house and I didn't get him down until 8:30 when he nursed into a coma. BAD mommy.

I think you are right about the push back - My new goal is to get him in bed by 7 - or 7:30 latest. And you're totally right about the AM nap - he slept for 2.5 hrs this morning!! I think that UnlikelyMamma - you're right about him being overtired. I think I have this idea that if I make sure he's super tired he'll sleep better. Dumb. I should know better. IT will be a little hard to get him down that early - usually we're eating dinner at 6:30 or 7 - I'll just have to steal away to get him down.

SeattleRain; yes - baby mania! That's exactly what DS is like. We do have a white noise - I run a fan in his room and he goes to sleep with an aquarium noise thing - that's the sound association idea I got from the No cry book. My hope is that if I turn it on in the middle of the night, he'll remember - oh yeah - now I go to sleep.

Sere: What about a muzzle? Kidding!

Expat mamma: sorry that it wasn't a good first night - I hope it gets better!!! Like you and Laurski - I'm afraid that I'll make it "worse."

Of course, I'm also essentially sleep training my seven YEAR old at this point too. She's had some sleep problems (probably due to the baby - seeing all his attention, etc.) and wants one of us to lay with her until she falls asleep - it's fine some nights but not others, of course the times when we have to work, do stuff, watch 30 Rock, etc. - she's up until 10:30 waiting for us. So I've made up this chart for her and if she sleeps alone 2 nights, one of us will lay with her for the third. Anyhoo .... thought I was done sleep training her 6 years ago but ... oh well.

Keep posting how it's going!!

[ContentMama]

I'm in. I started a plan right around January 1st and we have made some progress..but have had many a setback! the first of which is the nurse/sleep association which we are still working on. As of 3 days ago, we adopted a super early bedtime (bath 5:30 ish, bedtime 6-6:30) and this has made getting him to sleep so much easier. However, yesterday he woke at 2am-4:30am and last night it was 4:30 am. Wake as in I'm awake and not going back to sleep for a while. I let him fuss around next to me, nurse, whatever and he won't go back to sleep! Even tried to rock him back to sleep last night and he resisted. But he is clearly tired: rubbing eyes, yawning.

Am hoping that he is just readjusting to the new bedtime. We will see.

[expat-mama]

Night #2 - WORSE than night #1. SO MUCH WORSE.

We were up at 4 for the day. And yesterday after the first night his daytime naps were horrible and he's usually a pretty good napper. I feel like we're just f-ing things up even more.

Last night I couldn't even count the number of wakings- DH could soothe him and put him down but he'd be up within 5 or ten minutes again. We agreed I would nurse him twice during the night around midnight and again around 4 when he usually nurses out of hunger or thirst and not just to suck. And I would do the Pantley pull off to cut them down to reasonable times. Well last night I must've tried the pull off almost a dozen times for each nursing session and DS was just so upset. Sooooooooo upset.

He was really pissed off all night. He wasn't really crying each time DH would try to soothe him, but I could tell he was so unhappy it was killing me not to just grab him and nurse him. I know this is supposed to be hard, but is it supposed to be THIS hard? And is it supposed to get so much worse before it gets better?

Ugh- I dunno if we can do this.

We both got up this morning so discouraged...we need to rethink this plan. Maybe START with just the Pantley pull-off, still nursing to soothe to sleep each time but for shorter amounts of time. THEN once DS only needs a couple minutes of nursing, then maybe we can try other ways of soothing... I dunno... Am I looking for an easy solution? Am I giving up too easily?

We're all three miserable this morning.

[jesepumpkin]

i'm in!!!

my dd2 is 8 months next week. i have been wanting to night wean for the past 1-2 months. i've set a date a few times, then i had a cold, then she had a cold, then this week she's been teething. 

she naps well, big improvements in the past 2 months. now she is 3/ day, i think she might be ready for 2 but i'm not quite ready for it yet. 

bedtime is 7/7:30, she wakes 3 hrs later and then 2-3 hrs later, and then up 1-2 more times. so about 3-5 times up. i had gradually worked to a full feed at 10:30 and then two more 'short feeds' of 5 mins on one side, the side she doesn't like (ha!). she did okay with that for a few days and started spacing the feeds too. the idea was to get her tummy used to less milk. so that worked but then we got off track and i need to do that again over the next few days, her upper incisor just cut last night and it was rough.

my ideal plan: dream feed before she wakes at 10:30, then no feeds until at least 5. i am scared. she will settle without milk sometimes so it's not a totally new concept. 

my husband has moved to greener pastures (the guest room) to sleep since november so i don't have to worry about disrupting more of his sleep. he just doesn't function well (can't work and grumpy bear) with disrupted sleep so i understand. the ultimate goal is to get dd2's crib into her sister's room so dh can move back in with me!

best wishes ladies!!!

for ideas, i have been using the no-cry & the baby whisperer. 

[ContentMama]

Expat-mama: when we started, it was very slowly. The first step for us was doing the PPO for the first sleep of the night. I did that for about 1 week and even then it was tough. It was taking like 2 hours to get him to sleep using other methods like rocking. It was very stressful in itself and I would nurse him back down the rest of the night. Then it became hard to get him to sleep by nursing even when I wanted to! What I realized is that I can nurse him into a light sleep and then do the PPO. So now it sometimes is still tough and he resists and other times he unlatches himself. My philosophy is that if we are all miserable, I am moving too fast. Then I'll back off a bit and slowly start again. When reading Pantley's book I thought it would be very simple, straightforward and easy if I was consistent! Ha! I really had to reassess my own state of mind and expectations and tone way down.

I also realized the early bedtime is helping but he's still nursing like crazy all night! At least they are for short periods of time though. One small, slow step at a time!

[whozeyermamma]

First off, I have to say that you were totally right about moving up bedtime Unlikely  - in just a few days I've seen a really big improvement both in daytime and nighttime sleep! Moved bedtime from 8-9 to 7:30 or so.

Also - re; the pantly pull out - this is what I've been doing: (I'm not good at quoting;this is content mama)

"What I realized is that I can nurse him into a light sleep and then do the PPO. So now it sometimes is still tough and he resists and other times he unlatches himself." - this is what I started to do - "

Like I'll nurse him until she's almost out and then he wants the binky. I'll give it to him and then get it out before he's totally alseep. When I've gotten him into the crib sans binky - he's slept longer - one night for FIVE hours before first wake. Knock wood, I've had none of that "awake and playing for an hour at 3 am," and none of the "up and crying off and on for hours," either.

Jesepumpkin; what if your LO wakes during that middle time and you offer the side she "doesn't like' (mine has that too.) if you only offer that one will she give up and go to sleep without it? (eventually, not bothering to wake up and STTN?)

I'm so sorry that it's not going good, expat! what if you tried Content Mama's idea about the PPO?

Good luck ladies! Keep the faith!

[expat-mama]

Thanks for the words of encourage and advice...

Last night was WAY better! Yea, yea, yea! I feel like a new woman today!

We changed our plan (again) and it seemed to work better this new way.

I nursed DS to sleep in our pretty normal fashion- nursed for a while then when he was pretty much asleep rocked him for just a couple of minutes and popped him into his crib. Oh yeah, we made it for our 7 pm goal finally too! So DS slept from 7-10:30 (waking 3 times, DH put him down pretty quickly during those times), we went to bed at 10:30 and DS stayed in his crib next to our bed. He woke up at exactly 12 and I nursed him as per our plan (he was definitely hungry/thirsty), but then brought him back into bed with us. (We had wanted to get him sleeping in his crib for the night- but decided we'll make that a later goal and concentrate on getting him to have less wakings). I nursed him back to sleep, not really bothering with the PPO as he was mostly asleep through the feeding anyway. Then from 1230-4 DS woke 2 more times and DH soothed him back down. It took DH a while to get him down the second time but he was really determined. DS was bucking and squirming against him and complaining, it was awful- but he wasn't fully crying. Then the fourth time when he got up around 4 I got up and he was ravenous and had a good long feed and (here's the best part)...he slept until 7!!! Woohooo!!!

Small victory, but oh I feel so much better. And I don't feel like we are running around in circles or moving backwards. Maybe this WILL work...

Today I am concentrating on keeping our loose daytime schedule for feeds, meals and naps and keeping the hope alive that tonight will be EVEN better!

Hope everyone else is keeping on keeping on....

[jesepumpkin]

checking in mamas!

dont hate me but things are better here and i haven't done anything else yet! i am shocked! i had a talk with her at bedtime, but i guess she listened. :)

last night she was up twice around 8 and 9, i think she ate so many yams that her stomach hurt, or could be teething still. i gave her some homeopathic drops and a cuddle, then put her down and shushed a bit and she went back to sleep. still sleeping at 10:45 so i did a dreamfeed. then she was up at 3, i gave her a full feed and she slept until 6:50 when my other dd woke us up. i love when she wakes in her crib as it hurts my back to cosleep that last hour. so woohoo! up once to feed, this i can live with! so i am wondering if i should still nightwean or if this means i should asap!

i will see what the next couple nights bring and then prob nightwean.

whozeyermamma, if she wakes during the night and it's not feeding time then i try to rub her chest and shush, most times i will have to pick her up for a cuddle. if she settles i will put her down. kind of like the pick up put down of the baby whisperer. works most times with 1-3 pick ups. if she seems distressed then i offer drops and put on the night light so we can cuddle and talk. 

if she wakes and it's feeding time, i will offer the one side. she will take it but fuss as soon as the flow slows. i will then put her down and rub her chest. she sometimes goes back to sleep after quick fuss, sometimes gets worked up and i take her out and give her the other breast. 

this whole plan is contingent on me orienting myself at night. sometimes i wake up and forget to look at the time and just stumble over to the crib, give her a full feed, and fall back in bed. only to realize it has only been 1.5 hrs since the last feed. doh! oh and that i have a plan to stick to and she's not a newborn anymore.

oh and shes up, of to bed for us... keep on ladies!!

[whozeyermamma]

Good news - expat and jesepumpkin! Bad news over here.

After a few good days/nights ... the last two nights DS was up for like 2 hrs - fussing, crying, or just not sleeping. I don't get it - could it have been the one tiny sip of chai I had? Broccoli for dinner? It's never bothered him before.

I've been doing the early bedtime and a little bit of the pantly pull out ... but nothing else - if the point of sleep training is to get him to sleep without waking, nursing, rocking, etc. - I can't get him to sleep even WITH nursing, rocking, etc. *sigh* ... It was insane - he'd start to fall asleep, eyes closing, breathing slowing and then almost TRY to wake himself up by whacking himself in the face, kicking, trying to roll over. He didn't even want to nurse. I'd be holding him and shushing and patting his bottom - one of our usual tricks _ and he'd arch his back like he does when he wants to lay on his belly. I put him on his belly and rub his back (another trick) and he'd get up on all fours and rock and scream.

Now he went down for nap and only slept for like 20 minutes and it's not even 10 am. Oh, and I have a ton of work to do today, no sitter, my older kid home for school break, no car and it's about 20 degrees outside.

[macy]

it sounds like he might just be really overstimulated during the day. what happens if you keep the house quie (no tv on, no music/radio) and let him play on his own a bit more during the day? i find when i spend too much time interacting w/ my LO she can't wind down as easily or sleep as soundly. some alone time between naps seems to help her.

[Loves2bGreen]

Ok. We did have a bit of a breakthrough recently when we realized that E was waking up to nurse so much because he was hungry, but then not staying awake long enough to eat enough to stay asleep for very long. We give him a bottle now at that first feeding.That has helped cut back the number of night wakings. Apparently I was also doing the PPO because I have gotten him to the point where I can get him to sleep if I turn him on his side and rock him after nursing (although we still often do the PPO), so we are well on our way to not needing nursing to put him to sleep. However, we are still having issues and my husband is threatening to not support me in my "no cry" methhod anymore starting the first of March. I read through this entire thread and found some good ideas, but my problem is slightly different. Below is a synopsis of where we are and maybe somebody can provide some advice? I'm at a loss.

On a GOOD day..... (if only we had more of these! Unfortunatley these are the exception)

Wake up around 7:00am.

Nap at 8:30-9:00 and sleep for exactly a half hour (you can set your watch by it). and he is up; no putting him back down.

Nap starting between12:00 and 2:00. Nurse to sleep. Sleep for a half hour get rocked back to sleep and sleep anywhere from another 1-1.5 hrs.

Bedtime routine starting at 6:45 and in bed around 7:15pm.

Wake up sometime between 10:00 and 12:00. Eat (from a bottle). Get rocked back to sleep. Mom pumps.

Wake up between 3:30 and 5:30. Nurse- fall back asleep nursing.

Wake up around 7:00am.

On the whole the above is the schedule I've been trying follow, however, the following is a BAD day..... (happens more than anyone would want)

Wake up around 6:30am.

Nap at 8:30am, sleep for exactly a half hour.

Nap starting at 11:30-12:00. Nurse to sleep,Put down in crib. Baby wakes up when being put in crib or within 5 minutes of being put down. Rock back to sleep. Sleep a half hour. Wake up. Get rocked back to sleep. Baby wakes up when being put in crib or 5-10 minutes later. Baby placed in bouncer and bounced for 20 minutes. Falls asleep. Mom comes back in in 10 minutes and transfers baby to crib. Baby wakes up when being transferred to crib. Baby is wide awake and kicking legs. Mom gives up on nap.

Maybe a nap while in stroller for 20-30 minutes around 4:30/5:00pm.

Bedtime routine started at 7:00. Nurse and rocked to sleep (do PPO). Falls asleep around 7:30. Wake up while being placed in crib or shortly after. Mom tries to rock and bounce in crib, baby will dose off and then re-wake when mom stops. Mom rocks back to sleep. (this may happen a few times). Finally asleep around 8:00/8:15pm.

Wake at 10:00/10:30pm. Eat bottle. Mom pumps.

Wake 1:00am. No reason. Mom rocks back to sleep, wakes up being put in crib, mom rocks back to sleep.

Same thing at 2:30am.

Wake at 4:00am for feeding. Fall asleep nursing. Mom falls asleep nursing. Mom wakes up around 5:00am. Mom puts baby in crib. Baby wakes 5 minutes later. Mom goes back into room rocks baby back to sleep and sleeps in chair with baby until his normal waking time at 6:30/7:00am. 

So as you can see my biggest problem is him not being able to get himself back to sleep. The longest naps he takes are in  his bouncer with the vibration on (2.5 to 3 hrs isn't uncommon), but he has pretty much outgrown the bouncer and needs to learn to fall asleep on his own. I read Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. Although, I don't like the CIO method the book does have some good insights about sleep begetting sleep and what is age appropriate waking. It has provided me with some useful no-cry tips and tricks that have helped (mostly sleep begets sleep, early bedtime and regular nap). However, I need advice beyond that book since I'm to the point where it says to let them CIO and I just can't do that. 

Anyway, I'm sorry for the length of this post. I just don't know what I am doing wrong and want to make sure I include everything! My little guy has circles under his eyes. Babies shouldn't have circles or bags under their eyes!

[ContentMama]

Loves2bGreen, how old is your son? It seems like he's up for very long stretches but I know each baby is different in that way. In the No Cry Sleep Solution she has in detail a method for getting babies transitioned from moving sleep to still sleep. What I've done that helps is swaddle and I lay ds on the bed because it's easier for me to get him on that than over the crib rail. He's not yet able to move around very much though. I also use a noise machine and have a pretty firm routine. This has helped tremendously with the length of naps though I still have to rock or nurse him down at times to lengthen past the 40 minute mark. I usually give it a good 10 minutes to try to get him back to sleep if he's only slept 40 minutes. Sometimes I then have to hold him for a 1/2 hour until I can tell he's in a deep sleep before I put him back down. Other times I have to hold him and then nurse in the bed if he wakes. And sometimes he just won't go back to sleep.

if the point of sleep training is to get him to sleep without waking, nursing, rocking, etc. - I can't get him to sleep even WITH nursing, rocking, etc. *sigh* ... It was insane - he'd start to fall asleep, eyes closing, breathing slowing and then almost TRY to wake himself up by whacking himself in the face, kicking, trying to roll over. He didn't even want to nurse. I'd be holding him and shushing and patting his bottom -

Gee, this sounds like us last week!! Is he going through a milestone?? For us I discovered shortly after this craziness that Lorenzo needed a much earlier bedtime. Today is was 6pm. And I started swaddling for bedtime because he was doing the same stuff with his hands, etc.

Now our issue is to stop the waking every 40 minutes until I'm in bed. And he's still nursing an awful lot all night. It seems to help make both of our sleep more restful when I take valerian root tincture in the evening!!

[expat-mama]

I'm so glad to be part of this thread! It's like we are all in on the battle together. HUGS. We'll get there if we just keep at it...gotta believe.

Can someone elaborate on WHY sleep begets sleep? It is true in our case for sure- when DS's naps are crap generally his night sleeping is crap too. BUT he has had the odd night when we are out all day and he only had short naps in the ergo and then slept like a rock all night.

Loves2begreen, how old is your LO? I agree it sounds his awake stretches are long. My DS is 7.5 months and his first two naps are only 2 hours from waking. He wakes at around 7 then goes down exactly 2 hrs later and his next nap is exactly 2 hours after he wakes from the first nap. If his awake times are any longer I've got a fusspot on my hands. His last nap (he is still on 3 naps despite the recommend 2 for babies older than 6 months) is usually a short one (30-40 mins) at around 4 o'clock and it breaks up a long awake time from around 2-7pm. Without that last little catnap, he meltdowns during dinner and our bedtime routine is not fun or relaxing.

SOOOOO our last two nights were mixed. Night before last was hellish. DS was up every hour, DH was worn out from a super long day at work and I think honestly his frustration was adding to the difficulty of getting DS down. Like DS could sense daddy was tense and exasperated and that made him more upset. So I ended up nursing him down ALOT that night. Last night was better. DS still woke up a bunch of times but DH was feeling better and got him down- we noticed that DS may sleep better sometimes on his own (crib next to our bed). So we were putting him down in there again last night and it was working alright. THEN we had a breakthrough! DS did his usual wake up and whimper, escalate to some yells and thrashing (he bangs his legs down on the bed repeatedly), pushing my hands away as I tried to rub and pat his chest. So I started to pick him up...then I had an idea! I put him back down on his tummy and started patting his back. For some reason IT WORKED. He calmed right down, went back to sleep without me taking him out, rocking or walking or nursing.  So I went back to bed and every time DS woke up and started his thrashing and yelling I flipped him over and patted his back. I didn't even have to get out of bed! And it worked really quickly- only 2 minutes of patting or something. Woohoo!

So we are going to try this new method out tonight. Hopefully it is a big step to getting DS to soothe himself back to sleep. We'll see.

[jesepumpkin]

hello again,

Loves2bGreen, i am also wondering how old your LO is. some of those awake stretches do seem long. if have you tried the wake to sleep method for extending naps? sneaking in 5 mins before waking and soothing as soon as baby stirs. worked for me a few times. 

whozeyermamma yikes, sounds tough. big hug! on the worst days and i can't sneak in a nap, dark chocolate is my friend. keeps my eyes open anyways. sounds like he wants to go to sleep but can't, or wants to be doing something else. i would guess milestone like learning to crawl, teething, or just hasn't figured out how to settle and this issue has 'come to a head'. if it is the last one, some crying will be involved but you can be there too. 

do you mama's have loveys for your lo's??? My dd has a super soft bunny to cuddle and i started her bonding to it around 3 months. she LOVES it and i swear prefers to cuddle it to sleep than me. when i put her in her crib she rolls around with it and gives whoops of joy and will go to sleep on her own for this reason. i also think this is what helped lengthen her naps, when she stirred she found it and was comforted back to sleep. at night after i feed or cuddle her she don't fuss too much when i put her in her crib because she gets her bunny. 

update on me:

up 4x last night. i forgot about not nursing and instead comforting back to sleep (i swear my brain is no longer working at night), because i did end up feeding her every 2 hours. i did remember to only feed one side. this morning i made the decision to wean tonight, but then had a good look in her mouth. yikes! i knew she was cutting the top one, it is now quite out on one corner. but there is one just pressing/cutting next to it AND the lateral incisor on the bottom. she working on 3 teeth at once! poor girl! so i will be still be taking baby steps (ha!) towards night weaning. hopefully in 2-3 days i can do it. 

i have made the decision that when my mom & sister come to visit march 4-5 i will get their help to move dd2 into dd1's room. i need someone to help with furniture, room organization, and moving clothes. dh is not into that. BUT i need her to be sleeping through the night SO I NEED TO NIGHTWEAN BY NEXT WEEK. i am excited and hoping i have the energy to do it. 

best wishes for sleep!!