need advice, or success stories

i’m a FTM and have an 8 month old baby boy who has only slept with me in bed since birth. i tried the cry it out method for one night that lasted 45 mins when he was 6 months. he was just getting his first tooth and i felt so bad for the pain that was causing on top of me trying to separate him from sleeping with me.

i’m looking to try again but be more hard on myself. it’s so hard to just let him cry like that. recently when we’re laying in bed sleeping he’s waking up every hour because i feel like he’s uncomfortable in that position. i’ll then lay him down in my spot and move to the middle and he’ll sleep good until he wakes up noticing i’m not holding him anymore. which usually happens anytime between 30 mins to an hour. i’ve gotten 5 hours of sleep broken up throughout the night since having him. it’d be nice to have a life where he does go down on his own and stays there until morning.

my boyfriend leaves for a trip next week and that’s when im going to try again. idk why but having him not there almost helps me?

we do bath (not every night), lotion, bottle, he falls asleep for that last bottle typically. bedtime is anywhere between 7:30pm-8:00pm. his typical wake up time is 5:30am-6:00am.

looking for what worked for you guys and any advice you might have. thanks so much in advance.