11 month old waking 4x a night for months...?

[Joesmama08]

DS2 will be one in a couple of weeks, and stopped sleeping through the night completely at exactly 5 months old.  He was a champion sleeper when he was a newborn, co-sleeping for 4-5 hour stretches, and was sleeping through the night in a crib next to our bed at 2 months old.  Now, he is up every 3 hours or so.  All.  Night.  Every.  Night.  I am 9 weeks pregnant and so exhausted dealing with him at night and him and his brother (nearly 3) all day that I feel like I am at my wits end.  

He only wants me at night.  No dad, no bottle, no pacifier.  He will not co-sleep.  He just cries and cries until I nurse him back to sleep. FWIW, he eats TONS at mealtimes and still nurses frequently throughout the day, so I don't think it's a hunger issue.  I just can't imagine teething or a growth spurt lasting this long.   Anyone have any suggestions?  Commiseration?  I can't imagine not getting regular sleep again before another babe arrives... 

[eh bien]

Hey Joesmama,

No expert here but DS generally wakes between 2-6 times every night and has always done so. For us, it's normal and just the way it is. I am feeling the tiredness of not getting a full night's sleep in over a year and I can't really imagine doing this and being pregnant so I feel for you. You mentioned your DS is up all night long... is that until you nurse him or regardless of whether or not you nurse him?

It seems like if you're going to nurse him back to sleep anyway maybe you should just go in and do so instead of trying to get him back to sleep by other means. You say he won't co-sleep, but where do you put him when you nurse him back to sleep? Could you put him in your bed and then he's right there the next time he wakes? That could make things easier for you.

I hope you find a solution that works. I was sooooo tired in the first trimester that I CANNOT imagine how I would have got through it with multiple wakings at night.