Help - What am I doing wrong?

[BadgerQueen]

I know this gets asked over and over but I feel like I'm missing something. Our 6.5 month old's sleep is getting worse and worse and we can't work out why, this week we have had night after night of her waking at night and refusing to back to sleep for up to three hours. I have read the previous posts and taken the advice, but we are still not winning. We have tried pupd and reducing the feeds slowly - but her patterns are haywire (she woke on various nights at 8 & 11, 9.30 and 3 and 10 and 1.30) so its never the same and once up she stays up for hours and will not settle in her cot or even last night, in bed with us. She used to settle with patting and shushing, but no more, sometimes she won't even settle after a breast feed. She naps brilliantly in her cot in the day at regular times (9 and 12.30 for 1.5hrs each time)with minimal fuss. She has been teething and coldy so we have given calpol in desperation, but it makes no odds. She is a great weight and is usually jolly - but is getting more and more tired in the day. Can anyone tell me what we are doing wrong?

[luvlydECMOrations]

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. This stage for me was a while ago as my youngest is now 7.
However I would say don't do the patting or shushing as it is a really hard habit to break.
My DS was an awful sleeper at that age, he was up 5 or 6 times a night.
Does she make a lot of noise in her cot when she wakes? I would try not to go into her too much but I know how hard that is. Someone with better advice will come along soon!

[ches]

There's not really anything you can do except wait it out. It's the gross motor development that messes them up at this age learning to sit up, learning to crawl as well as a growth spurt and starting solids which can also interfere.

For us, it wasn't until about 8 or even 11 months that being Really And Truly awake at night (which DH used to do when he came to bed, grr) did not result in a baby swinging from the chandeliers for an hour or more. Our DS's sleep is SEVERELY affected by development so from 5.5 mth (when he learned to crawl -- aagh!) onwards, it has been multiple night wakings with no end in sight at 22 mth due to teething. I'm slowly night weaning and it isn't making the slightest bit of difference to the frequency of wakings.

[egypt]

its a phase its a phase. she will change so wait it out. i can't really advise as mine is 21 months and still wakes 2-3 times a night.....

[walkingwomb]

My 7 month is EXACTLY the same. We have been putting her in our bed and ignoring her. Not much help but some solidarity...

[BadgerQueen]

Now I can't get her to go down this evening at all and I am in bits. We tried to give her neurofen if its her teeth, but she spits it all out and I don't want to risk giving her more. Can it be teeth though if she sleeps in bed with me okay? If its gross motor - what's she trying to do? She is clapping properly today - does that count, she can sit up already, but not much else. Aargh.I know we all go through it, but we its so hard at the moment, I haven't had a full night since April,and only then for three months, because my first was sleeping badly with night terrors for months before that. IJUSTWANTTOSLEEP. Am hiding on here and watching the monitor.

[neolara]

My ds had terrible teething problems. I found that calpol didn't make much of an impact, but a dose of neurofen was much more effective. Often this was the only way to get him to go to sleep.

Good luck!

[snickersnack]

I can offer a lot of sympathy and not much advice. Except that it will eventually get better, which isn't actually all that helpful when you're ready to weep for lack of sleep. We're just, finally, coming out of the woods with ds's sleep (though now his older sister is waking, grrr) but I do remember 6 months being a particularly bad time. On Christmas Eve last year he slept for 2.5 hours solid without waking and I remember saying to dh in the morning "it's the best Christmas present ever".

Agree Nurofen is better for teething than Calpol.

[bloss]

Message withdrawn

[BadgerQueen]

Bloss glad it worked for you - whatever gets you through, but its not something I can quite stomach (we had a rubbish attempt at with our first and all ended up wailing, what weeds!). Have had dodgy second attempt at nurofen and she has gone down, probably in medicine induced coma, but the peace is bliss - for now....Calpol doesn't touch the tooth pain as far as we can see - does anyone know how quickly neurofen starts to work?

Thanks for sympathy all.

[mayx3]

Hello BadgerQueen, feel much better on reading your post as I'm in the same situation. I've been in tears today as my nearly 7 month old just gets worse and worse at sleeping. He doesn't nap either (generally) and just want some time to get things done during the day as well as sleep at night. We've actually decided to take the plunge and try CC from tonight. We'll see, we're wimps too and it might not work, but we're both knackered and none of the touchy feely stuff seems to help. I think he's teething too, but it doesn't seem to bother him during the day. At least he's learnt to sleep on his front now (which is why we've decided to give CC a go now) as since August he's been rolling onto his front and getting stuck and waking us up. He's also an early crawler (more than a month now), but that doesn't seem to cause problems as much as the rolling did. Sorry for the long post, fingers crossed both these babies will get better soon!

[BadgerQueen]

Mayx3 good luck for tonight - we are off to bed now, perchance to sleep?