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Original poster

Baby won't sleep anymore!

24 replies

guajiraguantanamera · 04/11/2015 09:02

Posting here for traffic rather than another board. I am desperate for advice. My 7mo ds had been sleeping really well for ages, usually went down about 8, slept til 12/1ish, had a bottle then went back down til anywhere between 6-8. Perfect.
But he has started waking loads now, a handful of times between 8 and his midnight feed, and then lots of times between then and morning.
He has started rolling and quite often when he wakes he has managed to get stuck on his front. Also he is teething but he doesn't always seem sore when he wakes up so I dunno..:
Me and my dp are exhausted.. I was starting to feel better and like things were going well and now I feel back at square one.. So tired and so stressed. Sad
Is this common round about 7months? So worried it's going to be like this for months and months.

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RoboticSealpup · 04/11/2015 09:34

We had a similar situation with DD. She slept horribly for her first 3 months, then suddenly started sleeping like a dream (9-12 hours) until teething began at 5 months. We then had a very difficult period during which we had to resort to co-sleeping for several months and she woke up screaming almost hourly some nights. It was hard.

However, she's now 12 months, back in her own bed and sleeping pretty good.

One thing that worked for us was to teach her that after she goes to bed, she will not get picked up until morning. (However, I wouldn't do this if she was screaming in pain from teething, and we only started doing it at ten months.) She sleeps in our room in her cot, and if she wakes up I will "shush" and stroke her belly or back. After two nights of not picking her up, she will lie down, suck her thumb and close her eyes as if on cue when I make a shush sound and put her in bed. It's quite astonishing. I never thought it would work, but it did.

I found, with "sleep training", that you have to be 100% committed to the process and feel right about doing it. I told myself that we were doing DD a favour, teaching her to self-soothe. That made me feel better about doing it, and therefore I was able to stick with it.

Original poster
guajiraguantanamera · 04/11/2015 09:51

Up until recently, popping his dummy back in was usually all it took to get him back to sleep, no picking up required. But now that he has started rolling onto his front we have to pick him up and turn him over, I'm worried he will know that if he rolls over he will get picked up.
I ended up in tears this morning, I feel like he has regressed with his sleeping and I don't know what to do. I'm supposed to be going back to work soon and I'm now terrified at the thought of having little sleep then having to get up and go to work. I know loads of people do this and I need to man up a bit. I'm just so tired.
He was doing so well and it feels like a massive step back.

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Sanch1 · 04/11/2015 09:56

Unfortunately that's babies for you! Our DD went through all sorts of sleeping phases in her first two years due to various things - teeth, growth spurts, illness, plain stubborness. I have been known to nod off at my desk! You just have to ride them out and know that eventually things will improve. At 2 she now sleeps pretty well, havingsaid that she was up last night having a party between 2 and 4am!

Pooshy · 04/11/2015 10:02

we've had exactly the same- our LO slept through from 5 weeks, even when we dropped the dream feed at 5 months. She was an amazing sleeper. We felt so lucky! Then at 7 months we were in for a shock as she was waking us loads when she learnt to roll over! She'd get stuck and upset and we'd have to turn her back over

Since then it's been one thing another with constant colds, teething and moving around in her cot

She is now 11 months and it's getting better again but they have a sleep regression some time between 7 and 11 months

I got stressed when this started happening as I felt like I was getting something wrong and was worried about the broken and lack of sleep. But then I decided or to worry about it which has helped me a lot. When she's so little and constantly teething I don't feel like I've had a window to sleep train her, but I think she'll get better on her own once she is healthy and not teething

Sorry that's probably not that helpful but It will get easier!

Sunnymeg · 04/11/2015 10:03

DS was a good sleeper, but every so often he would have a blip, which usually coincided with a growth spurt, could it be this? As my DS used to be hungry at night during a growing phase. His sleeping would then settle down, but in a different pattern to before . If I were you I'd see if he will eat some baby rice or something similar alongside his bedtime bottle just to fill him up and hopefully help him to sleep longer.

Original poster
guajiraguantanamera · 04/11/2015 10:10

Pooshy that has made me feel so much better- your story is identical to mine! Ds slept through from 5 weeks also and I was so happy and felt like we had won the lottery with our "amazing sleeper" now I feel so miserable.
I think it is possible a mixture of teething, a growth spurt stimulation- ie. He can now roll and wants to do it all the time lol.
Can't wait til he's a moody teenager and wants to sleep all day..
I will have my revenge

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HaydeeofMonteCristo · 04/11/2015 10:11

We had a phase with DS at about six months when, as you say, he started moving around the cot alot at night, and we had to get up and move him away from the sides. He would then go back to sleep. He is a front sleep (and was at that point) so he would sort of crawl up the cot until he was banging his head on the end.

However, he was actually still sort of asleep. I counted it as sleeping through as long as he didn't wake long enough to want milk!

HaydeeofMonteCristo · 04/11/2015 10:12

The thing that helped me most with DS's sleeping most of all (especially as compared to older DD) has been putting him in a gro-bag type thing. It stops him rocketing about as much and he doesn't wake up cold.

DisappointedOne · 04/11/2015 10:14

Check out wonder weeks. DD's sleep was affected when she was about to:
Roll over (3 months)
Sit up (5months)
Crawl (6months)
Pull up to stand (8months)
Walk (9 months)

And so on.

Your baby will never develop at the same rate as their first year again. I think you need to adjust your attitude to them sleeping.

Crazypetlady · 04/11/2015 10:25

Ds is the same at the minute. He is five months. He slept terribly until three months I had to hold him most of the night and he would be up a lot. From three months he would go to sleep fully at 11 and wake up between 6-8 only waking at five occasionally for a bottle. Now he wakes up a number of times, I get him out cuddle him and he does settle but he prefers being in bed with me. My dp doesn't like the idea of co sleeping so ds just sleeps with me in bed for an hour in the morning.

I know it is a shock when they have slept well but even as they get older there is no guarantee they will sleep through so just try to take it as it comes.

ifgrandmahadawilly · 04/11/2015 10:37

Babies practice new skills in their sleep. They will often go through phases, when having some sort of mental leap / spurt where their sleep is affected. I remember when my daughter was learning to stand, she used to wake herself standing up in her sleep.

Really though, it could be ANYTHING! change in diet causing stomach upsets, separation anxiety, beginning to dream, teething, temperature, itchy clothes, too much light, cot too big or too small.

Whatever it is, I hope you find out soon and resolve it. Sleep deprivation is always worse when you've gotten used to having a nice, uninterrupted sleep.

RoboticSealpup · 04/11/2015 11:13

Agree that the gro-bag is good when they start moving around. DD has definitely slept better since she got hers.

Original poster
guajiraguantanamera · 04/11/2015 11:44

Haydee I will try a gro bag tonight! That sounds like it might actually help!

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DisappointedOne · 04/11/2015 13:04

Grobags did nothing for DD. She managed to vault over the side of the cot in hers at 16 months.

DisappointedOne · 04/11/2015 13:05

(My dad said I was the same, but when I was a baby grobags had ties on them to tie to the cot bars so babies couldn't roll/stand/climb.)

Chococroc · 04/11/2015 13:12

I could've written this exact same post over the past few weeks. No advice I'm afraid but I'm watching the thread closely...

Hotpotpie · 04/11/2015 13:27

Have a Google of sleep regressions, my daughter was much the same and it was always a developmental leap linked to a sleep regression

DisappointedOne · 04/11/2015 14:22

I recommended wonder weeks further up.

LauraMipsum · 04/11/2015 15:04

No advice but I could have written your post. DD will be 12 months in a couple of weeks and hasn't slept properly for about 4 months now. The last three nights not even bringing her in for a cuddle has helped. I'm back at work full time and I'm sitting in a coffee shop on my lunch break about to cry with tiredness. If anybody has any solutions, or is able to tell me that it's perfectly ethical to feed valium to babies*, speak now.

*Joking, obv.

chumbler · 04/11/2015 15:24

Read the gentle sleep book by Sarah ockwell smith it's amazing. Also I think if you follow her on Facebook (her gentle sleep book page) she does a Q and A at 9pm tonight, you have to post quickly to get it answered! It's either that first or last Wednesday of every month
But seriously get the book, it has made me feel so much better about my baby's sleep and I still refer to it all the time.

Also have you tried co sleeping? My baby sleeps for longer when I do this

Hope you get some rest soon x

chumbler · 04/11/2015 15:26

Also definitely get a grobag!!!!

chumbler · 04/11/2015 15:31

Also once they can roll you don't need to turn them back onto their back, it's fine to leave them on their tummy

www.lullabytrust.org.uk/back-to-sleep

Original poster
guajiraguantanamera · 06/11/2015 17:57

He doesn't roll onto his tummy to sleep though, he does a kind of downward dog pose using his hands to hold him up and is wide awake lol iyswim..

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Original poster
guajiraguantanamera · 06/11/2015 17:59

Been using his gro bag the last two nights, I think it has helped a tiny bit!
Dreading tonight though, Dp left for work at 4am this morning, he will be home in 5 mins then he is going out to his evening job and will be home about 2am so 100% up to me to do tonight's shift lol!

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