Im in need of some new ideas of how to help DS with his frequent night wakings (or a reminder to revisit old ones.) DS is 15 weeks old and this was our night last night (which is becoming the norm) Bed 7pm, awake at 9pm (he usually has a dreamfeed at 10pm so I gave it to him then), awake at 11.40, 1.00, 1.30, 2.00, 230, 3.30, 4.00 (had a bottle went back down at 4.30), 5.00, 5.30, 6.00. At 6.00 I put him in his swing as he was still tired and he slept soundly till 9am. Apart from the 9.00 and 4.00 wakings when he had a bottle (he is fully formula fed) I put his dummy back in and give him a quick rock and he usually goes straight back to sleep until the next waking. I have tried feeding him earlier than 4.00 but he just cries and refuses the bottle. Im getting a lot of pressure from well meaning relatives to "just leave him to cry and he will soon stop once he knows Mum's not going to come" but there is no way I am going to do that to him. I'm also looking for suggestions other than co-sleeping as some nights we do it and it works and others he isn't interested in co-sleeping and wants his own space.

DS has been an unsettled sleeper from day 1. He had reflux and colic which the reflux is under control with losec and he seems to have outgrown the colic. The wind issue was a big one and I do wonder if it is still wind bothering him but he is getting pretty good at getting his wind up and I give him gripe water on bad nights which doesn't seem to have much effect. He has always been the same since birth though that he will do one stretch at the start of the night and once he wakes up from that he is unsettled for the remainder. With the dreamfeed he was starting to go till 3 or 4am till he was waking which was heaven but when he wakes at 11.40 you know you are in for a looong night. We have a consistent bed routine of bath, massage, wrap, dummy, comforter, and cuddles which works really well now to get him to sleep and during the day he is in a loose 3 hourly feed, play, sleep routine. He sleeps in an Amby Baby Hammock for the start of the night and then after the dreamfeed I put him in his cot (the first 3 nights I did this he slept till 4 and 5) and when he wakes from that he wont resettle in the cot so he goes back in the hammock. The reason I don't leave him in the hammock all night is he likes to sleep wriggled up to one side so is always off balance and I worry about the angle of his neck. He sleeps with his bottom half wrapped but refuses to have his arms wrapped anymore as he likes to hold on to something. I introduced a comforter (a small blanket square with an elephants head) so he generally cuddles it or puts it over his face and holds onto the blanket.

I know there is no way he will sleep through but I would to get him back to at least having a four hour stretch after his dreamfeed to give me the chance to get a few sleep cycles in myself. He is a lovely little boy and I know I can be a way better Mummy when I am not a sleep deprived zombie so I want to help us both.

So any ideas of what else I can try?