Alright, we've been co sleeping since the beginning and full time breast feeding. My DS used to sleep 4 hrs-3hrs-3hrs before the dreaded 4 month sleep regression and swaddle weaning. Since then, he's never been that great of a sleeper. Every once in a while he would surprise me with a 4 hour stretch, but it is sooooo rare. He was to the point only a few weeks ago where we were up at least every 2 hours with him, sometimes falling back asleep if I held him for a bit, and sometimes only with nursing. He sleeps with a paci, and it would fall out and he'd stay asleep, but during the sleep cycle transitions, when he's sleeping more lightly, he could never manage to fall back asleep on his own.

So, we finally decided enough was enough and would do some sleep training to help him fall asleep on is own, and hopefully lengthen his sleep stretches a bit. We started last Friday. I nursed him before bed, laid him down without his paci, he cried and fussed for 10 minutes, and then fell asleep on his own. No help from us whatsoever. He woke up at pretty much ALL the exact same times he usually does, so obviously it's a habit. A few times he cried and put himself back to sleep, but not without quite a bit of tears.

We've been sticking with it ever since, and it really hasn't gotten much better, unfortunately. Still waking every 2-3 hours. He will wake crying and fussing, then calming down so much so that I think he's fallen back asleep, only to ramp back up again. This can go on for close to an hour. Last night it, was from 10:30-11:20, then again another time, I'm not even sure when.

I've been thinking about what else we can change, because I know he can fall asleep on his own, but he's still having such a hard time in the middle of the night! I'm trying not to cave and nurse him to sleep for all of his wake ups, but last night was pretty awful, so I gave in twice...I really don't mind at least one night time feeding, but he really doesn't need 3...or 4! My concern is that maybe we need to switch up our bedtime routine so that nursing isn't the very last thing we do, because I'm wondering if maybe he's still associating that time with falling asleep. Do you think that might be the case?

I'm just not sure how long it's supposed to take for babies to lengthen their sleep with sleep training. I'm trying to slowly stretch the gaps with his feeding (on the weekend with the time change, he went 7 hours between feedings, so he can do it...but he still woke like 3 times during those 7 hours...)

I'm sooooooo ready for at least one longer stretch of the night where he will sleep in peace. Does anyone have any suggestions, tips or advice? I feel like we're not making a whole lot of progress