7month old waking every 30 minutes..

[Sleeplessbythesea]

Hi, We have a baby girl who, since she was about 6months, turned from being a 12hour sleeper to waking constantly through the night. Some nights it's every hour, others, every half hour, and sometimes it gets to every 6minutes. My husband and I are struggling with the constant lack of sleep. She occasionally sleeps for a long stretch, but by this I mean 5hours, and she's only done this about 3times in the past 2 months.
We have tried to put It down to wind, or teething, but her two bottom teeth arrived and still her sleep is poor. We tried Gripe Water in her last bottle today and so far it seems her sleep has been been worse.
I have read many web pages suggesting reducing day naps, but she only sleeps In the day for small amounts of time. Maybe an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon if I'm lucky, and if I'm pushin her in her buggy.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Many thanks.

I know it sounds silly but could she be hot/cold? My DS kept waking and we've now realised its because he was cold!!

That's not silly, any ideas are helpful! We too thought she may have been cold but having the room warmer and adding a vest hasn't seemed to have helped unfortunately. Many thanks.

Poor you it is exhausting isn't it!
Too warm or cold as previous poster said?
Wind? Do you wind her after her last feed or are you putting her straight down after falling asleep on bottle? Always try to get a big burp out!!! Gripe water will help if that's the problem but you still need to burp her! My ds3 only really got probs with wind from 6-7 months...
Constipation? Does she arch backwards and strain?
Teething?
Does calpol make a difference?

How do you settle her when she wakes? Might she be hungry so never going to go down for long??

Many thanks for your comments. I'm pretty sure she's not too hot or cold as we've been monitoring this.
Our bedtime routine does end with her having a bottle. Occasionally she falls asleep on it and I put her down and wind her when she next wakes, but mostly I wind her first and then put her down awake and give her a dummy. Rarely she falls asleep on her own, mostly I have to sit and hold her hand, but I do try to let her see me leave the room while she's very heavy lidded.
We went through a stage of getting two hours out of her after Calpol (pre her two bottom teeth), but we can't give her it all the time as tempting as it is to allow us some rest.
I suppose it could be the next lot on there way, but I can't believe there's not a small reprieve between.
Wind? I think this could be a factor. Often she wakes, cries and pumps and goes back to sleep, but not always.
I don't think she's constipated as I'm constantly changing dirty nappies at the moment. It seems the more in, the more out! I think we're on about 4 a day at the moment. Sorry to be so graphic. I suppose this is normal?
All this waking does seem to coincide with weening and moving her into her own room.
I wondered about separation anxiety, so have been playing lots of peek-a-boo.
I do wonder if she's hungry sometimes, and I do give her more milk if she hasn't taken all of her 4 bottles that day. The trouble is if she wakes fully, it can take about 2hours to get her back down.
Thanks for all your suggestions, we may try bed time milk to fill her up. We also thought about taking her to a Craniologist to see if that would help. Have any of you tried this?

What food are you giving her, when and how much? Have you had her weighed recently?

So you're not feeding her in the night? I'd try that to be honest.

I'd also feed her during the night, that shouldn't necessarily make her fully awake again. At the same time, though, if she wakes up half an hour or an hour after her last bottle I don't think she'll be hungry again at that point. When reading your first post, I noticed straight away that the problems seem to have started around the start of weaning, like you said yourself. I wonder if she is allergic to something in her food and can't settle because of tummy aches? Might be worth talking to your hv or GP about this possibility...

Not really a suggestion but we had exactly the same with DS from six months. Tried everything and blamed everything.... then one night he just started sleeping well again. We eventually attributed it to a sleep regression. It will pass, although I think if someone had said that to us in the midst of it I might have hit the roof!

As a mother of a 7-month-old myself I can sympathise with what you're going through as my LO is currently getting all four of his top middle teeth and we're having a hideous time at night with lots of waking and crying. A formerly good sleeper that becomes disturbed is often teething-related even if you can't see any more teeth appearing. Babies also become more aware of noise, light, and other disturbing factors at around 6 months and they figure out that crying summons you. For a baby who hasn't learned to self-soothe this is something very desirable and it seems like you're doing a lot to soothe her if she wakes. Basically, she needs to learn to self-soothe and really the only way to do this is to reassure her that you're there every now and again, but otherwise let her put herself to sleep. This will involve crying and fussing while she learns, but it will pay off in the long run.

Waking half an hour after last feed at bedtime? My (bf) de does this virtually every night, has another good feed and then goes back to sleep for hours. So it is possible to be hungry again after such a short snooze.

Ds, not de!

I 'd definitely still try to offer her milk during the night, as it is likely see could be hungry

Also, have you tried putting her to sleep on her tummy, it seems to help little ones to have a more restful sleep and if she does have a wind putting her down this way would almost 'force' the wind out

Can I suggest you speak to Milpond. They are sleep specialists. We had a similar dreadful few weeks with DS at the same age. He was unable to put himself back to sleep when he came into light sleep at the end of every sleep cycle so woke every 45 mins. It almost killed me so you have my sympathy.

What worked for us was vey very gentle controlled crying. Not leaving him to scream him self back to sleep but sitting in his room- not patting, feeding, etc, just sitting in him room whilst he went back to sleep, then sitting in his doorway, then sitting just outside his door, then down the hallway etc. you could also do controlled crying but I think if you do do this you need proper support and advice.

The only other suggestion is the pick up and put down method- do a search there is bound to be some recent chat on this. But we found that this did not work for us.

There is no right way of tackling this. You May need to try a few things Until You hit on what works for you, You know your baby and what you are comfortable in doing.

Good luck

So many things to think about.
I need to get her weighed and plan to next week.
She has 3 meals a day and 4 formula. As an example, porridge for breakfast with or without a purée in it, spaghetti bolognese for lunch followed by fruit and yoghurt and beef casserole for dinner. Then more fruit if she's still hungry. About 130g per meal? It varies dep how hungry she is and I'm not too sure on qty.
We do feed her in the night if she wakes up. She already takes over 600ml a day, so concerned about over feeding.
I know we need to work on self soothing. She can do it sometimes, but not all the time and she often needs a dummy which is a whole other challenge.
Allergies? Hadn't ventured there. May need to start looking into it as it does seem it could be tummy soreness disturbing her.
Have considered seeing a sleep therapist and have been recommended Andrea Grace? Will take a look at Millpond as a possible other avenue.
Many thanks again for all your comments/ suggestions!