Holding baby at 4am every night…how does this end?

Little guy is 7.5 months old, and we are deep into a pattern of cuddling to sleep when he wakes between 3:30 - 6am. Any wake after 3:30am means we are rocking him back to sleep and holding him in a chair; he won’t transfer back to his crib. Mama is tired.

We sleep trained (Ferber) at 4.5 months and had success with bedtime and any wakes before 4am. We’ve just never been able to get over that hump, no matter how much wake time we have. We tried Ferber and CIO at that wake, and he’ll just cry until morning. He isn’t hungry, he just wants to be held.

Schedule right now is 2.5/2.5/2.5/3. We’re just getting over a nasty cold, so I’m hoping to switch to 2 naps this weekend. He does daycare during the week and typically does 3 naps, no more than 2.5 hours of day sleep total.

At this point I know I’ve created a bigtime sleep association. Anyone been here before and seen the other side? Tips for tackling this and a nap transition?

Thanks!