Discouraged and tired

LO is 7 months old in 3 days.

I tried everything before we decided to sleep train. (No judgment!!) I just didn’t think I had it in me to let him cry but we started fighting him not just for naps but bedtime too. He was fighting bedtime for 2 1/2 -3 hours every night and I decided if he is going to be crying that long anyways while trying to put to bed, we may as well try sleep training. But he would sleep pretty decently once he would get to sleep. Usually only waking once to feed sometimes twice.

We started sleep training last weekend (5 nights ago) and it changed our entire bedtime battle. We used the sleep wave method, it seemed like PU/PD just stimulated him more when we had tried previously and I happened to come across the sleep wave method.

Last night though, our little boy woke up at 3:30 am and would not go back to sleep until 6:40 am. I was planning to start the sleep training method for his first nap today but I don’t even know that we should start this morning.

I’m just getting so discouraged.. it seems like every time I get something to work for the issue we are having, another (usually worse than the problem I was trying to fix) starts. I just feel like I can’t do anything right and everyone in my life I talk to tells me how their babies just slept ??

I did try to change our nap schedule a little bit. Here’s how it was

wake up 7/7:30 2/2.5/2.5/3

I tried to move him to a 2 nap schedule because he was taking 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps consistently and
Was starting to fight the 3rd nap. And waking multiple times a night.

Once we started sleep training he wouldn’t nap without contact napping if I tried extending wake windows and capping naps for a 3 nap schedule. I tried 2.5/2.5/3/3 would only contact nap. With an 1 hour nap, 1 1/2 hour nap, 30 min nap.

we did a 2.5/3/3.5 - first nap was 1 1/2 hours second was 1 hour 20 minutes. He napped better but woke at 3:30 and wouldn’t go back to sleep. I was also definitely keeping him up during these wake windows. He does well with 2.5 first but trying to get him to 3 he’s pretty tired.

I just don’t know what to do. I haven’t hardly slept in 7 months and just starting to feel discouraged that I can’t get it right.

I’ve talked with a gentle sleep consultant which didn’t result in any help. tried huckleberry which never seemed accurate, tried napper which worked for a week - long enough to convince me to pay for a subscription before it no longer seemed accurate. I’ve tried just going off of his cues and he’ll end up 0-100 overtired and miss naps. Lately I’ve been very strict about the wake windows & it still seems we are all over the place with no consistency.

But at least he can fall asleep at bedtime on his own now 😭 he successfully put himself to sleep the last 3 nights with little to no fussing at ALL. He cried horribly the first night about an hour & half before I couldn’t take it & nursed him to sleep. Second night cried for 1 hour exactly then put himself to sleep. Third night cried for 2 minutes. Nights following has a little fuss for less than a minute before spending some time rolling around, babbling & falls asleep. So that is a win (to end on a positive note so I don’t sound like a totally dramatic negative Nancy lol)