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Stopped sleeping through the night - Help!

6 replies

AlaskaMermaid · 17/06/2025 23:13

My 7 month old has, out of no where, stopped sleeping through the night. We were on holiday 2 weeks ago. He slept through the first 4 nights, no problem. Then he started waking about 2-3 hours after he was put to bed. Tried putting the dummy back in, didn't help. The only thing to soothe him was to cuddle him. I would cuddle him for 10-30 minutes and then put him back. He woke 2 more times and the process continued.

The next few night got worse. He would only sleep if I cuddled him. The minute I put him down he would wake again. We thought it was teething, and we gave him Calpol and he went back to sleep no problem. However, it only worked that one night. We tried 2 more night with Calpol, but didn't change anything so I stopped.

Now it's been 2 weeks of him sleeping for the first couple hours after bedtime and then he screams and won't calm down unless he's cuddled. He won't settle on husband, only me. So I'm the only one losing sleep at the moment. He's napping during the day, wakes up after 45-50 min and needs a cuddle back to sleep (though used to sleep for longer stretches). He's doing well with weaning, I thought maybe it was a food allergy so didn't give him any food today, but alas, I'm in bed with him in my arms for the 3rd time tonight.

Is this separation anxiety? If anyone else has gone through this, how long did it last? Any tips or tricks?

He sleeps in a next to me cot but was hoping to sleep train him so we can move him into his new bedroom. But I don't want to sleep train while this is happening.

I can't co sleep because my husband can sometimes have night terrors and will flail around in bed or whip the bedsheets off or try to 'save me from falling off the bed'. The only option is husband sleeps in the other room, but we're already having a strained relationship, I don't want to make things worse.

Help please!

OP posts:
daff0di1 · 18/06/2025 00:07

It's most likely separation anxiety, it begins around this age. It'll pass very soon, lasted around 2 weeks for us. Can you sleep in bed with baby so you can get some sleep? Also I'd just try the cot without sleep training see how he gets on. We moved baby around this age and he loved it, the next to me was far too small and the first night in his cot he stretched and rolled and slept great. It's definitely worth a try

BacktoUK889 · 18/06/2025 01:05

We gently sleep trained at 5 months and had an exceptional sleeper until almost the day he turned 7 months. It's been really up and down since (he's 10 months now). Teething has been a big one (he has 8 teeth already) but also various bugs and lots and lots of developmental leaps. From talking to other parents at baby groups, almost everyone has the same. Sleep between 6-12 months goes really up and down. Some weeks he'll sleep through the night and we don't even know what to do with all this new energy we have, then we have a week or two when we're having wake ups every 2 hours and it's absolute hell (and a tooth usually pops up at the end of that).

BacktoUK889 · 18/06/2025 01:23

Oh just seen he's in next to me, you need a proper cot at this age. Mine loved his new cot, he could roll around endlessly. We introduced it at 5 months actually. At 7 months, he's close to sitting up on his own, he really needs some proper height to the sides.

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AlaskaMermaid · 18/06/2025 20:39

He's not rolling around yet in his sleep. Not rolling massively during the day unless he 'needs' to. And he's not sitting up yet either. I wanted to sleep train him in his next to me before we moved him into his bedroom so I'm not running into another bedroom every 30 min throughout the night. That's what I did with my first and it worked nicely then. This time I might need to try something different!

Finger crossed he's going to turn a corner soon. I need my sleep!

OP posts:
Teacaketotty · 18/06/2025 20:41

My two year old has only just started sleeping through the night 😭

AlaskaMermaid · 18/06/2025 20:50

So sorry to hear that! I was very lucky with my first, we sleep trained him at 7 months (took 5 nights) and he's slept ever since. My first was an amazing experience, he was so good! My second is very different. He's still very good compared to other stories I hear, he just needs more cuddles. Definitely lots of cuddles in whatever phase he's in at the moment! Please let it be a phase!

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