To be struggling to cope with the broken nights?

[MortifiedAdams]

DD is 1.1 and has had nearly a month of broken and poor nights sleep. She goes down at seven and doesnt settle til 11. She can (and often does) wake at 12,2,4 and on til we get up with her at 6.30ish.

She stopped having milk in the night at about eight or nine months, and has supper and milk before bed so I.know it isnt hunger. She currently has a bad nappy rash which we have creams for from the docs, and when she wakes crying in the night we are changing her nappy and re-applying creams to prevent her rash getting worse.

Im clinging on to the fact that it might improve after the rash clears.

I work shiftwork so got in from work at 11.30 last night but it takes me a while.to wind down so fell asleep at 1. DD then woke at 2,4 and six. Nappy changed at 4, re settled the resot of the times. She is asleep now, but I am up as I leave for my next shift at 7am.

I could manage the five hour sleep between shifts if it was unbroken.

I feel bad saying to DH in the mornings "I just want one night of unbroken sleep". He is very good and gets up in the nigt with her too, but as it is a small flat as soon as she wakes we both do.

So so tired.

14mo DS was a terrible sleeper until he started sleeping on his stomach at around 10 or 11 months. For some reason he sleeps really, really deeply like that (i.e. right through things like teething). We've been amazed how much difference that one change has made.

Ooh thats interesting! Im a stomach sleeper and find it really odd that dd goes.down on her back and doesnt.move an inch at night.

I secretly want her to be a stomach sleeper as I find it so.comfy.

If she is taking so long to settle then she might well be hungry later on in the night.

Glad you had good night, no sleep is a killer!

mortifiedadams I think I held off giving my DD milk for too long because I was influenced by a friend who advocated going to your child, giving them a quick pat and leaving the room again immediately and NEVER giving milk after 6 months. Like your mum she thought I was making a rod for my own back.

DD would be sobbing in pain and holding out her arms for me and after all that sobbing who wouldn't be thirsty and hungry and in need of a cuddle. In the end I worked out it was only DH or I in the room with her so we should tackle in whatever way we thought was best!

Hope you enjoy your holiday and find some time for relaxing.

Arg, bad night again last night. Been back to the docs and he gave a different cream for the rash but I think its caused her some discomfort last night. think ill just apply it daytimes.

Whats hardest is the unknowing. I go to.bed hoping that she will sleep for X amount of hours.and just dont know if she will.

offering sympathy here. DD is 22mo and still doesn't sleep through. Different things have helped at different times but no one thing has worked all the time. For a period from around 12 mo we put DD's cot back in our room and found she was self settling better without us having to get up, sometimes just a "shh sleep" from us drowsily would be enough. After a while though we started disturbing each other's sleep. Around 18mo patting and shhing was seeming to work although it involved a few nights of hysterical crying. However after 2.5 weeks she was still waking at regular intervals and needing us to pat her back to sleep. At present, when she wakes, we bring her into our bed. Rod for our own back, pfft maybe but when they sleep badly regardless I'm going to do what gets me the most sleep. Good luck