7 month old still wakes every hour

Hi Zombie mama. Firstly, I have not experienced this same problem - only in the way beginning when my baby was a few days to about two weeks old. She woke up every 20minutes and also wanted to drink every time. I quickly switched over to bottle feeding which helped a lot, that stretched her to sleeping a couple of hours at a time. But yes, that quickly got me to crack, so I can just imagine what you are feeling like after 7 months!

Have you been with her to the doctor just to make sure it's not something like silent reflux etc? Can she hold a bottle yet? Mine soothes herself back to sleep with her bottle. Also, I see that you are breastfeeding, but should you become really desperate, I use S26 Gold - it is very rich and my baby started sleeping for longer as soon as I put her on it.

My 7 and half month daughter wakes in the night every hour. If I'm lucky every 2 hours. It's not new, she's never slept through and I don't expect her to but have read by now she "should" stretch at least 4 hours before next feed. She only wants to be helped back to sleep by being held or nursed (for comfort because there's no way she can be hungry an hour after being fed.). In the past I've always nursed her to sleep and back to sleep. By 2am she's in bed with me so that I can have a better sleep without having to get up to feed, she can just pop on and off the boob at will. I allowed this because this is what I interpreted feeding on demand means. I decided it's time for sleep training because she's getting bigger now and I'm no longer sleeping comfortably with her in bed, no one else could put her down for a nap as she relied on sucking, I wanted her to stay asleep for longer than an hour at a time. I consulted a sleep trainer who prescribed the gradual cry it out method. Early on I realized it is backfiring, my baby is a tension increaser and when left to cry will build up more energy becoming hysterical and never getting tired of crying (we're talking hours on end). Then I switched to the no cry "pick up put down" method which has helped tremendously with going down for naps, duration of naps (naps 1.5 to 2 hrs at least once a day now instead of only 30 mins) and going down for bed time. It has not changed the frequent night wakings and can only resettle with boob or being held - and that is where my problem now is. To answer the questions in your head: yes we have a bedtime routine, she wears cotton pj's, has dry nappy, room is perfect temperature, she gets plenty activity in day, I massage her after bath, use white noise with every nap and bed time, there's no cot toys or mobiles in her crib and she has started solids.
my husband is not always home to help with the graveyard shift as his work takes him away for 2 weeks at a time so the demand this night waking has placed on me with pick up put down has taken its toll on me and I have officially cracked. I can't work anymore because of this, it's affecting my relationships, basically I'm a total mess and from the stress and lack of sleep nothing is coming out when I try to express. I now think there may be something wrong with her. Surely this is not normal? Or am I just expected to "get on with it" and cope? Because I don't know how to do that. I'm not coping. And yes I know I'm blessed to have this problem and it won't last forever, but there's got to be a reason why she won't respond to the method for night wakings if it's helped with naps, right?