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Sorry to read you are having a hard time. It can be extra stressful for both mom and baby when dad is out of town!

I am no expert, but at 7 months, my son was eating more solid food, that could be an issue with why yours is up so much at night. I also think 7 months is old enough for a night routine, with a bath, so you might consider adding that in.

We had to do sleep training three times to be successful. The first time at 6 months he just wasn't ready and the crying increased rather than decreased. We finally were successful at 10 months. Every baby is different.

Good luck to you...I am also curious to read what other moms have to offer!

I have to agree that at his age more solids would probably be a huge help. I also second the idea of a night bottle rather than straight from the breast. They do normally take more that way. Both of my sisters breastfed and had a strict bedtime bath/feeding/bed routine. They both follow this routine still as both my nephews are over 1 year old. The stricter the routine the better from my experience. I also wouldn't feed him while in your bed. He will continue to want that being that he will just want to be with mommy, that will lead to more waking and crying because he wakes and knows he's not with you and that makes his little self angry(cause mommys are awesome and why not want to be with her all the time )
So, my suggestions are:
1. Start a soothing bath routine maybe 45 minutes before feeding time
2. Feed night time bottle- maybe try increasing oz for this bottle
3. place in bed and try to not have to hold him to go to sleep. This doesn't mean you have to leave him screaming but maybe take in a chair where you can be touching him while he is still independently soothing himself to sleep. This way he knows you are still right there.
I do hope this helps at least a little bit!! Good luck!!

My son was doing the same, he'd wake up in an hour no matter what time it was. What we had to do was sleep train, and by that I mean put him in his crib after the routine and go in at intervals, sometimes helping him lay back down, but we never picked him up. It took us two weeks, but we got there.

I should say before that he was sleeping in bed with me, in the nursery. He would wake up every hour and I would jump in and soothe him, which was the worst thing I could do. If you know your LO is comfort nursing, you have to decide if you want to stop it or not. No one method is right for all babies.

eta: what is he eating for solids? you don't have to do anything with dairy or soy if you don't want to. my son eats oatmeal with fruit in the morning and baby pasta, meat and two veggies at night.

Maybe it's something with the age? My 7 month old finished getting an 8th tooth in and I don't see any new ones, has had a cold that he's finally getting over, and he STILL isn't sleeping great either and I've been wondering what the deal is to.

Like you, mine comfort nurses, gets angrier when patted and shushed, and mostly won't cry it out, I keep trying and he keeps crying...kid is strong-willed like his mama.

Just my opinion, but it seems like you LO needs to learn how to put himself to sleep and unfortunately, the only way to do this effectively is to sleep train him again. This probably isn't what you want to hear but could it be that the previous sleep-training attempts were inconsistent?

Babies are smarter than we give them credit for - if you had let him cry it out only to go pick him up after 45 minutes, then he has learned that he needs to cry for 45 minutes before someone will pick him up. If you stick to your guns, then he'll learn that mommy isn't going to pick him up and that it's not worth his time to continue crying. Also, babies get disoriented when they drift off to sleep in one location (your arms) and wake up in another (pack n play) so they purposely wake themselves up to try to get back to where they were (your arms).

My LO was extremely stubborn and cried for 2 hours (with me checking on her every 10 minutes) the first night, 1 hr the second, 30 min the third, and finally for less than 1 minute the fourth.

It also helps to read up on how babies sleep. Even if you don't read the whole book (cause who really has time to), the chapter on sleep associations was extremely helpful to me to understand how babies sleep differ from adults and how some of things I was doing was actually causing my LO's sleep disruptions (like rocking, giving her the pacifier, or placing her in crib after she falls asleep in my arms). Good luck and I hope things improve.

http://www.amazon.com/Solve-Your-Childs-Sleep-Problems/dp/0743201639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322588072&sr=8-1

Could he be a bit cold? When it first started getting cold out as soon as I added an extra layer she went back to sleeping better.

My little girl just started waking up several times a night and she's always been a great sleeper, she just turned 6 months. Over thanksgiving everyone swore by giving a bit of rice cereal before bed so we may try that but I think she was having some gas pains because people were feeding her more solids than she was used to.

You might want to also try to keep him up just a little longer so he's good and tired - probably bad advice - but I've noticed if I try to put my LO down too early she wakes up more frequently like she's taking naps.

I would say more solids, especially before bed so that he is fuller and sleeps longer. Also, maybe a pacifier. He should learn to put himself to sleep, and crying it out, though really hard, might be the best thing.

@brownie: What's evil about co-sleeping? I'd read up on how to do it safely. I don't love to do it because I don't sleep as well but I've never thought of it as evil. I've had one friend who's son is just a bear about leaving their bed but from other people who have done it they kicked their kid out around a year or so and it worked out fine.

Do you have any family around that can help out? maybe someone that can give him some bottles during the night and when he realizes he is not getting the boob he will just not wake up.

I was also going to suggest pacifiers. When I realized that my LO shouldn't be eating at night anymore, I would just give him a pacifier and he would go back to sleep.

I don't think it is bad to co-sleep until your husband gets home. just put something else on the other side so he can't fall - like a bed rail or the pack and play if it is high enough.

My son hated his pack and play. I didn't realize it until about a week of him not sleeping/screaming/crying. One day, my mom tried to nap him on the floor (mattress on the ground) and he slept much longer. Maybe try something other than the pack n play?

My son and I co-sleep and it works for us. We're following the attachment parenting style and co-sleeping is such a great bonding experience for our family. We do it a little differently though. Instead of all of us sleeping on our bed, we put a large mattress in his room and sleep there. That way he knows it's his room and that's where he sleeps. We're starting to wean him off of it (he sleeps on his own now) and had no problems. So there's nothing wrong with co-sleeping! Millions of people all over the world do it.