DD won't sleep anyone got any advice?

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My DD is 9 months old, she's never been a good sleeper in the day, if I'm lucky she'll have two 20 minute naps a day, but a few weeks ago she had a cold and ever since then she's become a nightmare to settle, wakes up during the night for anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours but then still up at 7am.
Over the last few days the naps have all but stopped unless we're out in the car when she'll sleep the whole time we're out. Tonight I gave her the 7pm bottle she took 2 out of 6 ounces and fell asleep, 30 minutes later she woke up and had another 2 ounces and went back to sleep for 10 minutes and then DH had to settle her 10 times. She hasn't had any teeth come through as yet so I don't know if it's that.

We have a DS who is 3.7 years and has nearly always slept really well so with DD not having naps has hit me really hard and now DS is acting up to get attention.

Any help would be great.

Ouch! That sounds incredibly hard.

We have just one 16mo DS, who has always been a bad sleeper day and night, apart from a relatively good patch from 3-5mo, that ended when he started teething then getting continuous colds over the winter.

At 8.5mo we tried controlled crying in desperation - where you leave them for a gradually increasing length of time, going to visit them to reassure them and then leaving them to fall asleep by themselves. It worked, but only until he got the next cold a matter of days later.

If it is teeth, what worked for us was giving him a dose of calpol/ibuprofen if he woke in the night, teething gel, then feeding him (I was bfing) and he would settle in about 30mins with that. The problem with teething pain is that it can take up to an hour for the calpol/ibuprofen to work, so you are a bit stuck really.

I could talk forever about sleep, so let me know if any of this is helpful and I can tell more.

Good luck!

Could there be something else going on like earache? That often gets worse if they lie down- is she crying or just awake?

Sorry, should have said you can't do controlled crying if they are poorly. So you need to be sure there's nothing wrong first if you're thinking of trying that.

I am baby whispering my 5mo insomniac DD at the moment - she would normally wake between 2 and 6 times in the night for varying lengths of time. I started on Monday and she has only woken once for 3 out of the 4 nights, bang on time for her 4 hourly feed. I have read the book and am also using the online forum where I found sample routines to start with. Worth a try if you haven't already, there is nothing worse than sleep deprivation, I am struggling and I don't even have any other DC. Good luck

Book here
Forum here
Format of forum is a bit clunky but give it your full attention for ten mins and you will navigate your way around.

Am suffering sleep deprivation with a nb and it's horrible when you're going through it. Hoping he'll be like the other two eventually and sleep well but as you know there's no guarantee!

In case it is teething, have you tried Ashton and Parsons powders, Bonjela (or it's equivalent) as well as Nurofen/Calpol? If teething you should be able to feel the emerging toothbuds along the gum-line.

Also it sounds a bit cruel but if she's not having much milk and then dropping off to catnap, can you put her down on the floor/strip her off to wake her up and get more milk into her? With ds every ounce I could get in to him equated with an hour of sleep!

Thank you both for your advice.

isitmeor I'll try the controlled crying, although she has gone down ok tonight and she did sleep through all last night but was still difficult to get to sleep today so we went out and she slept in the buggy.

Cathpot I spoke to my sister at tea time and she said the same thing, I'm going to book a doctors appointment on monday and get her checked out cause we can't go on like this. My DD cries and follows me around the house all day and cries even more when I put her down at night or for a nap.

I do feel slightly better as both my DC are asleep at the moment and the kid next door is screaming.

I would leave any controlled crying until you are sure she is not in pain. Hope you have a better night.

GP sounds like a good idea. You have reminded me that I got DS checked out by GP (and cranial osteopath, I know ) before trying controlled crying. You need to be 100% sure that it is just them learning how to fall asleep by themselves, rather than crying because they are pain/hungry/dirty/etc.

So glad you got a better night last night.

And I know exactly what you mean about hearing somebody else's baby crying when yours is asleep. Priceless .

Well I spoke to soon, DS got up at 11.30pm with a bad dream and then when he went back to bed DD woke up, so that was midnight, I gave her some more milk and she went back to sleep until I put her in her bed and then she was wide awake and she stayed like that until 3.30, thankfully it was DH's turn and I got to sleep in this morning. DH did say that she was farting until about 2.30am and was really restless then (sorry if tmi) she had a big poo and then was more settled after that.
DinahRod I can't feel any tooth buds, but as I'm not sure if there is anything else going on we've been giving her Calpol, but obviously I don't wanna be doing that every night.
Fingers crossed for tonight, she settled about 8.15 and has had 5 out of 6 ounces of milk.

It's tough, isn't it? Do you know that there's a very common sleep regression at 8/9 months? Babies' brains are buzzing with working on a developmental spurt so they're too excited to sleep well. See [[http://www.askmoxie.org/2007/10/55-week-sleep-r.html here].