No sleep for 9 months- now I hate her

[Artyparty]

I am at my wits end. My breast fed baby has woken more or less every 2 hours from birth. I started settle and sooth from 6 months and things started to improve, but then went backwards again. Another little improvement at 8 months but we now have hourly waking and demand for breastmilk every 2 hours. I am on the verge of either giving up bf or doing cc. I feel that I hate her for ruining my life. I see posts from people with 18 month olds who don't sleep and I feel like I can't go on.

And the other posters are right - no rhythm lasts for ever, sleep training only works until the next cold or teething. Which doesn't mean you should not do it, you are clearly desperate, and need to be able to enjoy your baby!

And CC is the kind of thing you have to be certain about before you do it, because once you start there is really no going back, if you change your mind you'll have put your baby through it for nothing.

I feel your pain! my DS was breastfed for seven months and didn't sleep through until about 5 1/2 months by which time i'd had it!
Rather than cold turkey or controlled crying, neither of which I fancied, if he woke between 12-5am I just offered water, didn't pick him up, just gave him a drink then soothed him, put his Ewan "the dream sheep" (magic)on and left the room.
It was tough and he did grizzle a little but it took about two weeks for him to realise it wasn't worth waking up just for water. He now sleeps really well from 630pm-6am most nights and has learnt to self soothe himself back to sleep.
At 8 months she absolutely doesn't need bf during the night, it's habit so rest assured you won't be doing her any harm.

My friend tried Sleep Nannies and found them very helpful, if costly. But it did help and I think they discussed various options with her, as opposed to just researching one method.

I think she just had a telephone consultation rather than a home visit.

artyparty, i know how you feel. when ds2 was 9 months old the longest he had ever slept was 4 hours. he did that ONE time.
the rest of the time he fed every 30-90 minutes. day and night

we used the no-cry sleep solution with great success.
there is no way i could do controlled crying, especially not with a baby who was used to being comforted so frequently by breastfeeding. it somehow seems like an even bigger thing than a baby who just doesn't settle once or twice a night iyswim?

so yeh, elizabeth pantley worked very well for us, although it's not a quick fix but it was something i was very happy doing and there genuinely was no crying involved (from either of us)

Artyparty - I wrote your post 3 months ago too when my dd was 6 months. ONly thing was I knew the solution as dd is my 6th child. I had to bit the bullet and do ccontrolled cyring. As I am a bit older and much softer with her I knew it was going to be hell. I tried Liz pantley - no cry sleep solution but for us personally it didn't work and netiher did shush pat or any of those other methods. I found those methods incredibly hard going and still no or v little progress. Wtih controlled crying - first of all it is controlled as you don't leave baby to cry unattended - she cried on and off hte first night for an hour with me going in an dout and then in the night too.

Within a week she was donw from 7-5 which i am very happy about

No one has mentioned solids. I assume you have started? Protein is your friend for a nice full tummy..

i really struggled with breats feeding, and my daughter wanting to be fed every 2 hours. What i did was just remind myself that its only a small fraction of your entire life that your going to be doing this, and it does come to an end. I found co-sleeping easier as you can just rool over and lob one out without having to get up/sit up in bed.

roll

EDB teacher - yes, that's the one. It's a good book if your baby simply hasn't learned how to fall asleep naturally and needs to be taught without resorting to the harsher methods of controlled crying.