So I'm not sure whether everyone is aware of Kadin's evening schedule. Here it is:
4-5 PM. Kadin will have his supper sometime within this hour timeframe. Occassionally it's a bit later due to a later than usual afternoon nap, but most times it's bang on. Generally he'll take a short nap after supper as well for roughly 30 minutes. There have been times when it has been longer (up to 2 hours), though that's usually due to an insufficient afternoon nap.
We'll give him a snack at roughly 7:30 or so, then it's bath time at 9 PM. Around 9:20 or so he gets some cereal, and about 10 PM gets his last bottle for the evening. The next hour is spent with Tonia and projecting mental images of sleep, hoping against hope that he'll get sleepy and want to go down.
Since that never works, we watch him like a pair of hawks for any sign of sleepyness. When it has been sighted, the tv gets switched to a music channel, Kadin gets picked up and the rocking/singing starts and doesn't stop until we have a sleeping baby.
So he'll go into his crib, asleep, by 11:15. He then wakes up crying a few hours later, generally due to gas. One of us gets up with him to hopefully rock him back to sleep. If just gas, he can generally fall back asleep within a few minutes. If he gets worked up enough though, a watered-down formula bottle is all that will settle him.
Regardless of how we get him to go back to sleep, he gets up again sometime between 4-6 AM. Once the urge to sob has subsided (that's for Tonia and I), we repeat the steps taken last time. If it comes down to a bottle, we'll generally give him a few ounces of full strength formula. That will normally get him back to sleep for another few hours.
I personally get 6.5 hours between crawling into bed and my alarm going off. That's not 6.5 hours of sleep mind you, just 6.5 hours between those two times. Since it's very easy for me to fall quickly into a deep sleep, I still manage to get 5.5 - 6 hours of sleep a night.
Tonia unfortunately isn't so lucky, as it generally takes her much longer than me to fall asleep, and she's a fairly light sleeper as well.
We're both well aware that this type of sleep schedule is rather insane, but once you get a schedule down with your baby, any schedule, it's tough to break from it.
After a few failed attempts, we once again tried the Ferber Method of solving Kadin's sleep problems. So tonight at 10:30 I put Kadin (a very, very wide awake Kadin) down in his crib, kissed him goodnight, and walked out.
12 seconds later we heard him start to fuss, then break down crying. We had agreed to wait 3 minutes before going back into the room, and with great difficulty waited. When I went back in I gave him hugs and kisses but did not pick him up. 2 minutes later I left the room again, and heard him start to cry before I sat down on the couch.
Over the next 6 minutes his cries turned to sobs, and a heart-breaking hiccuping cry. I again went into the room to console him, and once again had to tear myself away after two minutes.
The next 9 minutes started off just as painful as before, but after about 5 minutes he was going quiet for a few minutes at a time. By the time 9 minutes rolled around, he wasn't making any sounds.
We quickly checked in on him about 10 minutes later to find him asleep at the opposite end of the crib, laying at an odd angle. Asleep though, and all on his own!
It has now been just shy of an hour, so this is officially our first small victory. If he wakes up crying anytime tonight, I have to wait 9 minutes before checking on him, and repeat that process until he goes back to sleep or it's time to start the day anyways.
Updates to follow, but wish us luck!