Is my daughter the child of Satan? Please help!

[Nicemum123]

Hi all. I hope you’re all well.

sorry the title of this post is a bit dramatic and will surely leave a lot of people disappointed!

I have a 15 month old baby girl (I have an older boy too) that has always been a nightmare at night. She wakes up every 2 hours screaming Bloody murder. She is a joy throughout the day and a very sociable baby, but it’s as if when the sun goes down she turns into the child of Satan. She has a good night time routine (bath, feed and bed), she goes to sleep at around 7.30pm, she is up for the day at around 7am.

The problems is without fail she will be up Atleast every 2 hours. The only way to settle her would be to put her on the breast. I have tried abstaining from doing this a few nights but she goes into hysterics. I have tried feeding her extra food (solids and breast milk) at night before bed but this didn’t work. She has been a bad sleeper since birth.

I might add that I don’t think this is separation anxiety related as even when I co sleep with her she still wakes up screaming bloody murder - however I am no expert.

She has a 2 hour nap in the afternoon at nursery so I don’t think she is over tired and can’t sleep.

This is really affecting my mental health, my relationship with my husband and son and even my physical health (back pains from holding her etc)

any help or advice or what I can do to break this 2 hourish cycle. We never had this issue with my son.

TIA

Some children are just like this. DD woke every 90 minutes-2 hours until she was over 2. Since 4, she's gone to bed and slept through every night. It's hell, but it will pass.

The only thing that will work is weaning her off the boob at night. Sorry, I know that's maybe not what you want to here and you might not be ready yet, but I think it's probably the only way. You'll have to persevere for a week or so with no night feeding before you'll see results though.

I had one like that, it was awful. She grew out of it before she was two and I then regained my ability to complete sentences during the day.
I didn't crack it (despite efforts) and mine wasn't on the boob or formula in the night so it wasn't to do with that, no idea what it was. Sending solidarity cos I have no advice. 😔

My DD would wake that regularly crying at night, night weaning wouldn't work at that age for her. Some children are just like this. We adapted our patterns to help, so my DH would take her at 4.30/5 for example so I got at least 3 hours solid sleep at the end of the night and hopefully a couple of 90mins- 2 hours earlier. At weekends I always got the lie in and would try and fit in afternoon nap where I could. I was working but p/t at that point. It's hard but it is transient.

Could she have reflux?

She's used to using your boob to get her back to sleep. You either need to stop that habit or just wait for her to grow out of it. Lots of advice re night weaning strategies (cold turkey vs slower approach) online.

Solidarity, OP. My daughter used to wake up in the night screaming and punching me. I think it was night terrors. She did grow out of it though.

This may be so, but that doesn't mean if she doesn't have boob she won't wake up in the first place.
My DD was like this and was night weaned. She still woke, it just wasn't the breast that got her back to sleep again when she did.
My DD went back to sleep quite easily actually, it didn't take long to sort her out, but she still woke me multiple times a night. In the end she grew out of it thankfully.

We had the same - night weaning fixed it. My son needed to learn how to go to sleep without being breastfed. The Lucy Wolfe book is great on sleep -gentle approach and a great result. That said weaning him off was stressful for all of us, I started by refusing it before midnight and patting instead, and then I made the time when I would feed him later and later until it reached 7am. Three nights after that he slept through. Lots of crying from him (and me!). Worth it as he's related and so I am. I just wouldn't be able to function otherwise.

Some babies are just like this. DD was the same. It felt like every single sleep cycle she would stir and if I didnt offer the boob she would wake up, go ballistic and then be up for hours and I would be fucked for work the next day.

I coslept and managed to get through it, and it started drastically improving when DD turned 2. She has started weaning herself which is also convenient for my lazy mum approach! On a good night now she goes 4/5/6 hours before she needs a little resettle and has done a few allnighters.

www.drjaygordon.com/blog-detail/sleep-changing-patterns-in-the-family-bed

Not sure if you cosleep but this is meant to be amazing