I want my sleep back!

[cecillia]

My eleven month old daughter is having huge sleep problems, wakes up about two or three times a night. She used to be such a good sleeper before but at six months she changed. I used to put her to sleep on the boob but I stoped that ages ago. We tried control crying two months ago and it seemed to work for a while than she got ill and than we went on holiday, everything has gone pear shape again. I know this is all familiar stuff and there must be hundreds of threas like this but I am desperate for a solution. I want her to find a comforter, blanket, dummy anything but she is determined to make me her only comforter! Any suggestions?

if the controlled crying worked before maybe you could try it again?

have you tried spraying a comforter with your perfume. or theres those comforters that you put under your clothes to get your smell onto them.

I got ds attached to a particular toy (blonde rag doll wearing a pink bikini) by getting him to cuddle it whilst I comforted him to start with. Once he'd associated the doll with being comforted and going to bed it was much easier to do the controled crying. However I would add if your child is ill, teething or unsettled for any other reason like a holiday don't bother with cc until they are back to normal. I would reccommend choosing a slightly more appropriate toy ds looks a bit odd dragging his toy round with him. Also if you do manage to get her attached to a toy make sure you have at least two of them for when one goes missing or needs to be washed.

she isn't 'determined' to make you her only comforter. babies are programmed to want their parents at night and at the daytime. after all even grown ups seek the company of others at night too. sorry, i know it isn't what you want to hear. i understand where you are both coming from.

Hi Cecillia,

Had same issue. We tried good old Baby Whisperer pick up/put down which worked well with our DS and stopped multiple night-time wakings. had to prepare for 2/3 nights of severely broken sleep (ie arrange daytime cover for a catch-up nap!).

We had lots going on at the time (had just moved house, DS had started crawling) so was difficult to isolate what was causing the problem, and even after PU/PD we found he was waking in the early hours with hunger (i.e. at irregular times, not through habit at the same time every night).

Solved this by changing his daytime routine: dropped bottles (at about 12 mo) and increased quantity of food at mealtime, moved to longer daytime nap, etc. That made the biggest difference.

Also moved him out of our room and ignored first 5 mins of any nighttime crying. He (re)learnt putting himself back to sleep.

Wouldn't suggest doing all that! But maybe one of those might work?

I sympathise greatly with you. I'm having the same problem except my dd2 is 20 months and stil waking 2 or 3 times a night. I'm due in feb and have no idea how to sort it out without literally dying through lack of sleep.

thanks for all the advise. I tried all the methods including the baby whisper but it does not seem to work. I was keep picking her up and putting her down today at nap time and she was frantically crying and throwing herself about that I had to abondon it after forty minutes. I never saw a baby cry so much and be in such agony. We definitely messed up somewhere but I don't know where. My little one is with her dady at the moment reading ( I know it is well passed her bedtime) I have put some meditation music on and some lavender oil and soft lighting. So maybe it will work.