Baby will not sleep

[Nsd2024]

Hi everyone.
I am really struggling with my 11 month old sleeping situation. She will be 12 months at end of July and has woken up at least 5-10 times from she was about 6 months old. She slept so well up until 6 months but since then my husband and I have been surviving on about 4/5 hours of broken sleep and lately it's really catching up on me.
She is a great happy healthy baby during the day. I feel like we do everything by the book regarding nap and wake windows etc but at night all hell breaks loose.
She is breastfed and I have always breastfed to sleep (I wish i had of known this was a mistake). When she wakes during the night she will NOT settle without my boob. I will feed her, set her in cot when she's drowsy but she scream the house down. My husband and I try everything to settle her because I know she's not hungry but in the end I give in because her and I are so upset. Last night she cried for almost an hour straight until I had to give in. This happens multiple times throughout the night. It's beginning to affect my mental health and I don't know what to do. I just don't know why she wakes so much.

She is still in a cot beside our bed, something which I want to change also because she has a beautiful nursery and cot to sleep in but it's one thing at a time atm. We co sleep sometimes but it still doesn't help. Any help will be so appreciated. 😢

Can you start breaking the feed to sleep pattern with daytime naps and bed times first? Build a new bedtime/sleep regime - maybe you feed at the beginning of bedtime THEN story, cuddle, toothbrushing, sleeping bag (whatever works for you). Once they get used to doing some sleep without a feed, it helps with night settling. Don't swap for anything unsustainable with a growing toddler, like rocking or bouncing on a ball!

When I was breastfeeding, I would feed at ~2 and 5am but all other settles between bedtime and 7am were done by my partner. We used shush-pat soothing at bed time and in the night.

IF you want to, you can start giving cow's milk as a drink around now. I have a 14 month old, we give a small cup of whole milk at bedtime (360 style cup because I can't face milk all over the carpet but you could use an open cup at 11 months if your LO is less prone to playing with their liquids then mine...). You call also give them porridge as a snack before bed if you think they might be hungry.

Try daytime naps in the cot :) I transitioned mine to their own room by doing the morning nap in the cot first. Afternoon naps in the cot were hit and miss for a long time but then clicked.

You need to not feed to sleep at bedtime. If she falls asleep, wake her up. For example, don't put her in her sleep sack until after the feed.

She might really find her own nursery much better. I had to sleep in my son's nursery when my parents were visiting recently (mine is 10.5 months) and he woke up quite a few times. Maybe I was snoring, or maybe he was looking around and spotting me. Either way, I ended up going to the sofa as he was too alert with me around.

At this point, some sleep training might be needed as well. Not necessarily cry it out, but look up some gentle methods to break the feed to sleep association. Biologically, he does not need feeding this frequently anymore.

My daughter was like this but unfortunately her sleep didn't improve when I stopped breastfeeding and woke the same on formula and even without milk overnight.
She has silent reflux which after she was upright in the day only affected her over night. One of the signs of her silent reflux overnight was wanting more milk soon after the last feed. The feeds initially soothed the reflux but then caused more reflux and she wanted more milk to try to ease the pain from the last feed.