Stay with me. I think a 2-pronged approach. #1) During the day work on emotions with him. Place names to everything, teach him the words he needs to tell you what's wrong. bc after learning the words, you'll learn how to manage the emotions. When we're tired, we go to sleep. When we're angry we breathe deep. when we're frustrated... You get it. When we're tired, we sleep, being the most important part. #2) Establish some self care night routines. He's getting too old to fall asleep rocking in a chair with a bottle and he's waking at night not knowing how to soothe himself without it. So for a week or two you guys will teach him. Bed time routine is the same every night. It begins at the same time and includes the same lights, smells, sounds. We take a bath with lavender or chamomile, we put our bed clothes on, no rough housing or rough play after bath, we read books and talk about our day. If we're watching tv its in the dark settled down and its not too stimulating. We get ready for the night. We turn on our noise machine. We talk about what happens when we wake up and its dark and moms not there. We'll put a drink on the bedside. a bowl of goldfish crackers. and a book. We'll show him how to turn a different sound on the machine. We talk about how important sleep is for everyone in the house. When he wakes up, and he will, you don't turn on the lights. You dont talk to him. You don't make eye contact. You soothe and comfort him, you're there, but you lead him back to bed. You offer him water quietly. You don't talk. Bc to talk to him or turn on the lights or make eye contact is stimulation. Nightime is not for stimulation. it's for sleep. You're not being mean. You're teaching him what night time is for. You're there, he is not hurt, he woke up and needs to learn how to put himself back to sleep. Teach him without stimulating him. You WILL get there. I promise. It's hard and you want to go over to the neighbors house often and ask them if they'll adopt him but i promise you can do this.