Sleep deprivation - 9 month old frequently waking throughout the night

[PhillyE]

Please help/advise!

My 9 month old falls asleep perfectly fine at around 7pm.

He then wakes at 8:30pm and has to be cuddled.

He wakes at 11pm and wants to be cuddled.

He wakes at 1:30am for milk and a cuddle and takes ages to go back to sleep.

He wakes at 4am and wants a cuddle.

He wakes at 6am and that's him awake for the day ....

He has breakfast at 7am, followed by a bottle at 08:30am and then naps from 9am to 10am. He has lunch at noon followed by a bottle at 1pm and then a nap lasting anything from 1 - 2 hours. Tea is normally at 5pm, bath and settle at 6:15pm and a bottle. He has a mid morning and a mid afternoon snack.

He has cardiac problems and as such has never breastfed. He has a dummy when he sleeps as well as a favourite cuddly toy. His eating and drinking has until recently been very erratic and establishing a feeding routine has taken a huge amount of work from myself, my husband and NHS dieticians and paediatricians.

However, neither my husband nor I can cope with this sleep deprivation. We are finding ourselves so anxious that we have fallen into the trap of not being able to get back to sleep once we have been woken (I am writing this at 2:30am and husband is currently working on his laptop following a wake up at 1am that has taken over an hour to settle back down).

Please please please can anyone give any advice or point us in the direction of someone who may be able to help? We are based on the south coast in between Christchurch and Southampton.

Thank you in advance,

An exhausted Mummy and Daddy xxx

Have you got a spare room? Given that he's getting a bottle instead of boob then you can take it in turns. One of you sleeps with ear plugs in and the other one does one night then viva versa. It's shit and it's hard but it will pass.

Other idea is can one of you sleep with him? You might not wake as much.

Huge sympathy for you, I know how hard that is.

In my experience 9 months was the absolute worst point for sleep. You've had a lot to deal with on the health front, and getting feeding going has clearly been a big effort - well done. But take heart, that may not actually be why he's waking so much now. It might just be his age. Mine was just the same at that point - it was a combination of teeth and massive developmental leaps.

It will get better. Stick with a nice bedtime routine but beyond that, forget trying to magically make him sleep through. He'll do it when he's able. In the meantime divide up the night shift between you and do what you need to do to survive. Good luck.