Need urgent help with night waking 11mo

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

DD has never been a brilliant sleeper and aside from 4recent miraculous days when she slept through, has been waking in the night and really struggling to get back to sleep for the last 6weeks or so.

I'm away overnight next Tuesday and Wednesday and we're only coping at the moment because DHand I take it in turns throughout the night trying to get her back to sleep - we need to try getting her at least easy to resettle before I go away otherwise DH will be a total wreck.

Issues:
She feeds to sleep (on a bottle) at bedtime but we don't feed her at night at all
Has a dummy
Nap schedule is non existent, almost like ages been trying to drop her first nap for a while. I rarely get her to sleep in the morning respite her seemingly tired. And she often wakes after 30mins. Can sometimes be rocked back to sleep
We're currently sharing a room with her and have DS(4) and DBro in the house to whom I want to minimize distruption
CC makes her hysterical and clingy

She wakes in the night and though by cuddling/rocking/whatever we can get her into light sleep, she struggles to fall back into deep sleep so wakes when we try to get her back in her cot. Co sleeping only works if she is utterly exhausted. It's not unusual to take 2hours+ until she's fully asleep again

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

Bump?

[girlsyearapart]

Could nt leave your post unanswered.

I am currently up with my 11month old too.

He used to fight sleep all the time and as the youngest of four he couldn't really have set nap times as needs to go along with what everyone else is doing.

We have a strict bedtime for him though & after persevering he now goes to bed without crying with no bottle or dummy on his own.

Keep trying to b consistent - I think it's when they get overtired that things get harder

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

I'm pretty sure she is overtired. She's always had a strict bath and bed routine, impossible trying to get her not to fall asleep on the bottle though.

I've no idea how to get rid of the dummy - especially with 2 transatlantic trips coming up!

[Coops79]

Sending sympathy! Not a huge amount of advice but I did drop the dummy with my 18wk old a couple of weeks ago. It took about 3 days and now we at a least don't have it falling out of his mouth and waking him up. Hopefully someone with a bit more experience will come along soon.

[Fairylea]

Is the dummy actually waking her up by falling out ? If it isn't and is helping her to sleep I'd just carry on with it. She won't still be needing it at 16! They do forget about them eventually, I really wouldn't stress about that at all.

Also if you don't want to co sleep I wouldn't ever bring her in bed with you. You need to be veRy consistent. If she knows that she gets to come in your bed eventually she will keep waking thinking "this might be the time I get to go in mummys bed" ..

I'd also stick to a rigid bedtime routine. Don't talk to her at all when putting her to bed or if she wakes during the night otherwise you are rewarding her for waking up. Keep the room pitch black or very very dark, I've found this has helped with my two who are both sleeping through from 4 months.

I have no idea if any of that will help. You have my sympathies.

[girlsyearapart]

Maybe you need to shift her bedtime routine earlier? Or maybe give her half the milk before bath & half after or put her vest on give half the milk then put her babygro on & give the other half?

Ds is much harder work in the night if he fell asleep drinking his milk than on nights where he goes to bed full & sleepy but awake.

Re dummies- two out of four of mine had them. The other two didn't want them. Dd2 got rid of hers to the dummy fairy age 2.10.

Dd3 still has hers at 2.3.

If you use them properly ie: as a comfort/sleep aid they are great.

There is an annoying phase of having to replace the dummy in the night for a while though..

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

The dummy isn't really an issue, she normally finds it herself or if she doesn't and that's why she wakes up popping it back normally works immediately. And DS had one til 3.5!!

I just don't know why she's waking, and the problem is getting her back. I'm sure it's because she feeds to sleep but I'm terrified of taking hours to get her to sleep in the first place then going through it all again at night.

And DH does not cope well on little sleep - we had a terrible night last night and he's just been really aggressive and nasty towards me, literally wrenched her from my arms