My baby is disturbed so easily when sleeping

[Sincity1993]

Hi my DD is now 8
Months old she was born 9 weeks premature and had a few difficulties when she was born, nothing serious, just needed time to grow ☺️
Ever since the amazing day I brought her home I've noticed she's always so easily startled and make jump when sleeping, even with the slightest noise! Due to my current living arrangements she doesn't have her own bedroom but she has her own crib etc next to me in same room. This is very difficult as it hasn't seemed to get better as she's got older no matter how secure I try and make her feel. Different blankets, toys, mobiles, soft lullabies in background, swaddling, rocking, dummies, head stroking to sleep. Unless it's complete silence she won't sleep for long periods at all which makes her quite miserable. She seems to be using a bottle to settle herself but obviously this isn't ideal as it's bottle after bottle even through the night. Is it something I'm doing wrong? Are some babies just like that? Could this be anything to do with the fact she had a long hospital stay with being pocked and prodded with needles all day even when she was asleep? I hate the idea of my beautiful girl not being settled or feeling unsafe!!?? Please help!!

Have you tried putting a fan on? We put a fan on, number 1 setting, we give our 8mo he bottle in the bed and then transfer her into her cot, she’s normally asleep on her bottle but if she’s not she settles herself, she has a teddy too so will sometimes fiddle with that till she fulls asleep. It probably helps that she’s got a crazy loud big sister so she has no choice but to sleep through it all. Hope it improves soon for you both, stuttered sleep is horrible x

One day my DS wouldn't settle, so we tried white noise, and it's definitely helped with his sleep quality. I no longer use the app, I just switch the fan on the lowest setting, as Housequeen described.

My son has sharp hearing. I think all of his senses are sharp, in general, as he's a fussy eater, hates certain floor textures so tip toes a lot and refuses to wall on certain surfaces etc.

The noise really helps drown out sudden/loud noises and honestly if you haven't tried it you should. On the other hand, my son is 2.5 and we still haven't been able to get rid of his night bottle!

Hi guys! Thankyou for advice, I have tried fan and I get too hot during night so fans pretty much on all night. I've brought a new singing toy for little one which lasts 15 minutes and I've noticed she listens and cuddles it quite contented so that is helping, she's even got herself back to sleep couple of times! 🤗 she does have a white noise toy which I forgot about so might try that too. Maybe just thinking so much about being quiet and not making noise has made things worse, going to try different approach and try to relax a bit I'm just so desperate to get a good night sleep! Wish me luck.

My 8 month old is the same! We can't even have her in the same room asleep as when we come to bed it wakes her
!

I think it's pretty normal. Babies sleep cycles are much shorter than adults and they spend a higher proportion of their time asleep in REM or active sleep which means they are much more easily woken up or disturbed by stimulus around them. Also changes such as teething can make things more tricky. Keep going I'm sure you're doing all the right things .

White noise and blackout blinds helped us! DS was a pretty terrible sleeper as a baby and it was a slow process but both those things were crucial, as well as sticking to a routine. I was worried that he would then need blackouts for ever but actually after a few months we tried without and hey presto! He doesn't need them any more. Of course he has his off days, if something unusual disturbs him or he's unwell. But on the whole he does sleep pretty consistently most days