moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

7 MO DOES NOT SLEEP. he's always been a fussy baby, in general. we did cio for night waking for paci abotu 6 weeks ago. worked great for a few weeks, now hes getting up again. last
night was up hollering every 2 hours. he went back to sleep each time, and i ignored him till 3 am, but that point, he woke up my 2, so i went and gave him back his paci. nights are awful- i jsut want to be able to put him down and have some peace. it basically turning into CIO every night, and he gets absolutey hysterical, nto like hte first itme we did it. I cant handle it, so i am oging to him, which i porbably making hte problem worse. naps are even worse- for the past week or so, he freaks out when you put him in crib, will only nap in carseat- i rock it till he falls asleep. on a good day, i get 2 45 minute naps. he has reflux, but is on meds. i jsut dont know what to do anymore. my #1 was and is an amazingsleeper, and i didnt do anythign differnt. i literally feel like we have constant crying here, and its getting worse by the day. i just dont know what to do anymore. he literally starts crying hte minute i put him down- all day, he jsut wants to be held, but nights/naps are awful.
I am thinking of taking him ot ped tomorrow to get ears checked, just in case, but he has no fever, no cold
I have been getting so frustrated lately that I end up losing my temper with him ro my 2 yo, and then i feel like the world worst mother , since they're both just babies, really.

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

DS was the same way until recently (until 10 months). Is he teething maybe?

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

get him checked by the ped and if you get a completely clean bill of health-no teeth breaking in, ear infections, etc then i would start with CIO again....i know it's hard since you have other children though. do you have some sort of white noise in his room to drown out his cries a bit? i know that helps when my DS is crying and my DD is in the next room. they both have white noise for this reason. also, do you have a bunch of paci's in his crib? no joke, my DS has 8 in his. it is a must! once we put in a bunch he started to find them on his own and that took care of a lot of his night waking. it sounds to me like he is truly truly just miserably sleep deprived and it is a vicious cycle. i am sure you have read on here 100x or maybe have tried the healthy sleep habits book? it helped me a ton with CIO part. when you are at the end of your rope sometimes it's the only way. but you have to be really tough and really consistent. are you sure he's not hungry? i do still allow my 7 month old DS one feeding as long as he's been asleep for 7 or more hours. it takes only a few minutes and then he's usually asleep again. i will do this if i have to til he's about 9 months as some babies still require feedings. but since i BF i am more paranoid about him not getting enough etc.. as long as i know DS is not sick i ONLY go in for that "scheduled" once a night feed. once we started to not go in he caught on and started finding the binky on his own.
once you can get him to sleep well at night, i would tackle naps and CIO. i think that the book (healthy sleep) says there is no time limit on CIO at night, but an hour for naps...then you try again. repeat. i think the author encourages waking up the baby at 7am then try a nap by 9 o'clock, then another nap between 12-2pm and no later, then an early bedtime between 6-8pm so that baby does not get so overtired that he cannot soothe himself.
just a suggestion....i wish you a lot of luck! i know it is SOOOOO hard and you start to resent the child, which is so hard. i know i did, that's when i knew i had to get serious. but good luck to you! you really will get more sleep eventually, hang in there!

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

DS occasionally still cries for the paci, but if he sees me he starts crying hysterically when I leave. Sooo...this sounds insane, but I crawl in and just stick one hand under the bumper and put it back in and he never sees my face. Guess he's not smart enough to recognize my hand yet.

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

does he need to have his meds upped? When was the last time he was at the pediatrician and his dose was upped?

Or maybe the meds he's on aren't working anymore. What is he on? zantac? prevacid?

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

my dd is not a napper either....I can relate....my dd got like this right before she got her first two teeth and then got better again....hope you get some relief soon!

Re: moms of bad sleepers/difficult babies- I am losing it

we were at ped a couple of weeks ago, he just had his dose upped. he's on zantac.
I am still nursing him aorund 4-5 am, he is bf. I do know he can go longer, since right afte we did CIo, he was going 7 pm-6 am, but i will still give him that nursing.
I read weissbluth book, and we try to follow- he is just not cooperating. also, i have ot take 2 yo to preschool at 9:30, pick up 12:30 three days a week
our normal day- he is up around 7 ish. around 9, i put him in snugride for a nap- if i put him in crib, i have ot wake him to take dd to preschool. days shes home- he goes in crib. almost always, he fusses and doesnt nap. he will eventually usually fall asleep for aobut 30-40 minutes. second nap around 1ih, once again after much fussing. he will sometimes take a cat nap around 5-5:30. bed at 7. problem is, he screams and screams before falling asleep. lately, he will sleep only being rocked in carseat or in swing. and hes fussy all day. i try to pay attention to his cues, its just not working.