Is it really too much to ask?

Really, is getting one good night's sleep too much to ask for? Campbell is just killing me with his sleep habits, and I don't know what to do. He doesn't really fit into any of the typical categories that baby experts write about.

Most nights he goes to sleep on his own without a problem. I nurse him until he's drowsy and pop him in his crib while he's still awake. I putter around in there for a minute, closing blinds and turning on his white-noise machine before closing the door. Sometimes he'll jabber or sqwak for a minute or two, but then he goes to sleep. Up until a month ago, he would sleep from 6:30 or 7:00 until about 4:30 without a problem. I didn't complain too much because he was sleeping for about 9 hours straight, even if they weren't the 9 hours I would have liked. He'd wake up, nurse and go back to sleep until about 7:30, which was perfect. This schedule allowed me to run at 5:30 and still have time to shower and get dressed before Campbell woke up.

But a month ago it all fell apart. I think he hit his 9-month growth spurt AND started teething all at the same time, which just caused so many problems.

He still goes to bed most nights without a problem, but now I have no idea how long he'll sleep and how many times he'll wake up in the night. Some nights he sleeps through. Some, like last night, he'll wake up twice. Each time he wakes up he nurses like he's starving, so I don't think it's a case of waking up and not knowing how to go back to sleep. Plus, he knows how to go to sleep on his own.

In addition to the middle of the night stuff, Campbell has now been waking up between 5:30 and 6:00 and refusing to go back to sleep. I nurse him and put him back in bed, hoping he'll go back to sleep, but he usually starts screaming after playing quietly for about 15 minutes. At that hour, I hate to let him scream it out because a. it doesn't work, and b. he wakes up the girls. Having one child awake at the crack of dawn is bad enough, three is awful.

So I'm stumped. Do I Ferberize him? Do I let him cry it out in the middle of the night? I've got to do something, though. I'm as tired now as I was when he was just weeks old. Suggestions anyone?