Screaming when he wakes...every hour!

I need some help.

For the last month James' sleep has deteriorated to the point of ridiculous. I didnt really realise is was so bad until the last few days.

He had been sleeping through (as in 7pm to 7am) for a few weeks. Prior to that we had months of waking only once. Then we went away a month ago and he got Roseola (we think). he had a grotty night then and started this screaming business.   I am trying to remember through the sleep deprived fog but I think he started to improve once we got home and went back to waking once a night.

Then it went down hill and we shifted house. I was so tired that I was getting up and feeding him just so I could go back to sleep while I did it.

Just been away again and it was disasterous. That is when the waking every 1 to 1.5 hours started. I refused to feed him each time and would spend 20 min calming a hysterical baby. he would be arching his back, kicking his legs, screaming a blood curdling scream! It is heart breaking. Picking him up doesnt comfort him. So I sit there rocking this screaming baby shushing him and just "being there" for him.

I dont know what is causing it. I have some thoughts.....
teeth (cant see any)
over tiredness (but good day sleeps dont seem to improve things)
bad habit
trouble with his solids (we started when we got back from our first holiday and the are a struggle)
reacting to something I eat (he is BF)
ears (but would expect bad day sleeps too)

Day sleeps are ok if I get the signals early enough. I am currently feeding him to sleep and I know that is something I need to stop but right now I want him to have sleep.

he seems to have lost the ability to self settle.

I need a systematic approach to to working this out and think I might see my GP

any ideas????? please!!!

I should add, he is the happiest, smiliest baby during the day...it makes no sense!

Poos are stinky.....and there are lots of "pop pops" before we get the poo. Pooing every 2-3 days. Basically they are like a slightly smellier, thicker, bf poo. Impressive poo-splosion the last 2.

Yes, he sleeps in the same room for day and night.

No, we dont wrap. Stopped wrapping at about 6weeks. He truly hated it, even though I didnt believe that babies could hate it. It didnt seem to upset his sleep by being unwrapped.

So far tonight, he went to bed at 7pm, woke again at 8pm and was beside himself so we gave in and gave him pamol and then I gave him a feed for comfort as he was so upset. He then woke again at 9.45pm and again I fed him (because I forgot I had fed him at 8 )   I'm about to head to bed now and hoping like hell I will get some sleep before he wakes again.

Maybe he has tummy ache before he goes, so not really constipated but still not happy about it? How about giving him a tiny bit of dilute prune juice just to see if it helps him go daily?

Its sounds a bit like it was for us when we weaned DD from the dummy as she was unable to self settle without it, the first few times we had crying every hour or so but after a couple of days of not giving the dummy at all she was sleeping through without a problem again (she does have a blankie that she sucks on now) When you do feed him does he take all that much and does he fall asleep on the breast? Personally I would try to not give the a BF once he is in bed for the night and you may find after a few disrupted nights he will get the hang of self settling and you will have broken the "habit: as such. Hope you get some long uninterrupted sleeps soon!

Yea sounds similar to what happened to us, i also used to feed him to sleep and it started getting to the stage if my boob wasnt in his mouth he would wake up screaming, and even while he was sleeping he would be mouthing around trying to find the nipple.

Finally i couldnt handle it anymore and needed sleep! Took us 2 nights of putting him down in his cot and waiting, but even the first night, once he finally fell asleep he slept for 4hours which was a record for us.

I was wondering that too Bizzy. he now gets upset if I turn my back on him so that might be it. I remember Tom doing something similar about this stage but dont remember not being able to comfort him. Thats waht gets me the most.

I dont mind feeding to sleep sometimes, but it was getting to the stage where I was thinking that he was snacking and therefore might be getting foremilk only and getting windy. I dont really think this is the issue as he takes good feeds when he does....and sometimes I think he only sucks and gets bugger all milk...they can control it cant they?

Last night was definitely better. Sure, I had to get up every 45 min or so and rock him back to sleep but he would drop off pretty quickly and at no stage did he actually look for the boob. He even self settled after a short (very short) grizzle so that is promising. I wonder if I was getting up to him too quickly as we were staying with family and I didnt want him screaming the house down.

Fingers crossed things improve.

You know, I have been thinking and his behaviour is not unlike that of a growth spurt. I wonder......

Today has been fine. He has had all his sleeps with no effort (apart from the late afternoon one that is always hard to do) and went down tonight within 5 minutes....WITHOUT FALLING ASLEEP ON BOOB!!!!