Our 7 month old son is now rejecting co-sleeping with me (and breaking my heart in the process!); he will happily settle into our bed to nurse, but after about an hour he starts screaming and flailing until I pick him up and go back into his nursery (next room) and put him in his crib. He is still waking up every 1-3 hours (sometimes intervals as short as 15 minutes) so it's in and out of his crib all night long, meaning very little sleep for me - at least I'd be lying down and dozing if he'd stay in bed with me. He cannot fall asleep by himself, but must be nursed or bounced/danced to sleep fully before putting him down (we often have several false starts where he immediately wakes up as soon as we set him down). He also rarely allows my husband to comfort him and screams louder until I come in and nurse him. Our current approach is that we go to him as soon as we know he's awake (as opposed to little whimpers in his sleep, from which he re-settles on his own) and comfort him in any way necessary until he's fully asleep and then gently transfer him to his crib, extracting ourselves like practiced ninjas lest we awaken him! Everyone, including our pediatrician, is telling us we need to just let him cry. We have not had success with putting him down in the crib "drowsy, but awake". He does not take a pacifier. He has a little puppy blanket/lovey, but it seems to offer no assistance in the falling/staying asleep process.

What should we be doing differently? I really need to find a way to get some more sleep. He doesn't take a bottle, so there's no way to take turns. How can I help him sleep for longer stretches at night or is that not a reasonable expectation? Are there things we could do/stop doing or do I just need to accept that this is what he needs right now and that he'll eventually figure it out on his own timetable? Thanks for any advice!