Apologies if this is a repeat thread.
DD has just turned eight months old and for the last month or so her sleep has been very poor. Other than in the car or the pushchair, it's a struggle to get her to nap and when she does sleep we're lucky if she reaches an hour.
At night, I'll put her down around 7:30pm, she'll have a dream feed at around 10pm and then usually she'll be okay for a few hours but once we get to around 2am she wakes every hour. Most of the time a quick cuddle will get her back to sleep, some times she needs to go on the breast.
She used to only go asleep at all if she was on the breast. Since buying a rocking chair it has been possible to get her to sleep without it. She sleeps in a cot in her own room but can't be put down awake, she has to be asleep when she's put down or she just cries. She's on three solid meals a day, plus breastfeeds and has a regular bedtime routine. She has taken bottle feeds in the past but currently refuses them and hasn't mastered her sippy cup yet.
DH does try to help but he works factory shifts operating heavy machinery so can't be going to work tired. Grandparents have also offered to come round to let me have a nap but we need a long term solution.
We've tried:
- Blackout blinds and curtains
- White noise
- Pillow spray
- Dummies (she won't take any)
- Ferber method (she cries for ages, exhausts herself to sleep for 10-20 mins and then wakes and cries again)
We've been a bit more relaxed about the sleeping before now but the urgency has increased now because I'm getting exhausted to the point where I'm worried about driving and also because I'm going back to work full time at the end of November, so she has to be able to nap at nursery/with her grandparents.
Last night she was up every hour from going to bed at 7:30pm to me eventually giving up at 7am this morning. Really hoping someone on here has been through similar and can suggest anything we haven't tried. When she's not tired, she's a sweet, happy and social girl so just need to get over this one hurdle!