DH and I desperately need help with DS. Since 3 weeks ago, DS started to wake up hourly night. He only had 2 naps during the day, 2.3-3 hrs in total and his bedtime is 730pm-730am and he'd been on routine since he was 3 mos. Before 3 weeks ago, he even managed to only wake up twice during the night for feed (he is BF baby) and he went to sleep straight away.

However, 3 weeks ago, everything went array. He started to be a little unsettle, crying all the time whenever I leave him by himself. I thought, ok he's having separation anxiety, I can deal with that, and I started to cart him around the house, room to room whenever I need to do things. Then, he started to not want to go to sleep easily. Before, it took me 15 mins to settle him do a little routing before his nap and off he went. Last 3 weeks, he will start crying once he 'knows' the routine is finished and I have to rock/pat/sing/cuddle him for at least 45 mins before he nods off and to top it off, he will not have me putting him on his crib, as soon as his back touches the mattress, he'll cry. He starts to do this on every naps and his night sleep time. Then he started to wake up hourly at night and will not settle himself to sleep. One of us has to rock/cuddle him to sleep and then we start with the battle to put him down again. I am sooooo tired but also feel sorry for DH as he has to go to work and he cannot get good night's sleep at all. But, DH and I just grin and bear it thinking it's ok..., it'll get better...

But it didn't. Last tues, DS was very lethargic and extremely sticky. I could not put him down at all and he would not have me sitting down while carrying him. So I had to stand up carrying a sleeping 8.6kg baby the whole day . But I was ok cause I thought DS is coming down with sth cause he wasn't acting like usual at all. And that night, he was down with fever. He had the fever til thurs (it was around 38-39 but comes and goes). The whole time he had fever, he was very sleepy and extra sticky, so from Mon-Thurs, I was carrying him the whole time without break, I even had to sit him on my lap when I need to go to the loo since he'd scream if I put him down and when he cried, his temp went up. And during that time, he didn't want to sleep by himself so we co-slept (with him still bawling every hr... poor DH). And he also didn't wan tto sleep by himself on our bed, so one of us would end up sleep with him.

So, his fever went away and he started to be himself again Fri night. we were hoping he will really go back to his old self (sleeping good, etc, etc). But no. He wouldn't go to sleep on his cot. So, we put him on our bed but he still wouldn't have it. He wants one of us to sleep with him. So since then, we've been carrying him around during the day, he sleeps on us. During the night, he sleeps with us, waking every hr needing one of us to touch/hug/cuddle/sing to him before he'll resettle.

I am sooooo tired.... so , my question is (so so so sorry for the extra long rant):
1. Did anyone have the same problem with baby around DS age in regards to changes in routine etc?
2. I would like to have him to start sleeping and playing on his own again but am very adamant not to do CC. Any ideas of this? Especially during the day, it's very hard to do anything with him holding on like a koala bear

Thank you so much in advance for reading my post and any comment is appreciated. So sorry for the rant once again.