where do we go from here

[prunus]

Hi, this is my first post. I have a little girl who soon will be 7 months. The problem is that she will not sleep through and has regressed to waking 6/7 times a night and only takes a small amount of milk each time. She constantly fights tiredness through the day and will catnap for 20 mins max. We have a routine in place, bed at 7.30 she is then awake at 10.30. We have started solids. Our eldest did not sleep through till 1yr but only ever woke once. A friend has suggested hypotherapy? She shares a room with her with her elder sister so CC may not be an option. Any ideas?

Hi - I can't really help except to ask whether she could be teething, as that often disturbs them a LOT at this sott of age. How long has she been waking like this for?

Anyway, otherwise I thought I would bump for you. It's your first post so I really hope someone can give you some better advise.

How about trying an earlier bedtime? If she is fighting sleep during the day then it may be that come bedtime she is overtired and I find that this often results in poor night time sleep. If she is only taking small amounts of milk then it doesn't sound like she can be terribly hungry when she wakes. Also, I know you have an older DD but are you able to work at all on her day time sleeps and try to get her to nap for longer? Again, it just may have the knock on effect of improving her sleep at night. Good luckx

Hi prunus I agree with the previous poster - an early bedtime can work wonders. I'd suggest aiming for 6.30pm whilst you work on naps.

If you get her up at the same time every morning, you can help to sort out her body clock which will help with naps.

Best thing to do re naps is to put down for a morning nap (by what ever method works - it doesn't matter how, it just matters that she naps at this stage) about 90 mins after she first wakes. Then next nap about 2 hours after she wakes from the previous naps and another one again. At 6 months, she'll need 3 naps a day. They'll probably be 45 mins max at first. If you crack the first nap of the day, it becomes easier.

As for the night wakings - there is a growth spurt and developmental leap around 6 months where sleep is affected. I'd suggest you don't feed at every waking - try and resettle to stretch feeds out to 3 hours, then 4 etc.

Also how are you going with the solids? I found that some foods caused my DS a lot of wind or were hard to digest, resulting in night wakings. So now I don't give any green veg/lentils at dinner as they might cause wind. I'd suggest you only give breakfast and lunch with a very light dinner. I did this which helped.

Thanks guys,

We are only in the early stages of weaning twice a day and only small amounts. Our DD has her first nap about an hour after waking which is always a good one of about 40 mins to an hour. The problem is the other daytime naps. She slept with me last night and only woke twice (bad move?) anybody got any thoughts on this hypnotherapy?

She is currently chewing the sofa!

I've not heard of hypnotherapy for a baby and to be honest completely confused as to how it would work??

Your DD might be more settled having you near hence sleeping better? You could try having her cot flush by your bed to see if that helps and gradually move it away?

Afriad I have no solutions but sympathy! my 7.5 month old is waking several times a night. It had gone down to just once or twice and now although sometimes only 3 times the second time she can be awake for up to 2 hours! at 2 or 3 am...not good! I tend to feed her as first resort and first wake up she usually settles straight away but second time it makes no difference so probably not hungry!

I do think it may be teething as she has 2 teeth that have just broken through the gum so I am hoping this will pass. I am struggling. Last night after an hour of pacing at 3am I ended up sat on the edge of my bed in tears!!! it's got to the point where I think there's no point getting settled and oging to sleep as I'll be up again soon! She also wakes early, around 5.30-6.30am. Even when I only re-settle her at 3 or 4am!!!

She also only cat-napped but have worked on this recently and she now has one nap a day of approx 1hour and half. I did a but of nap-blending but am not sure if it was that or just developmental as she has just started crawling so wears herself out.

So just as we crack day-time sleep night times are a nightmare and I dont know what to do either!

lazz it will get better, I promise. I cried so much in the last few weeks (DS is 9.5 months), what with teething, learning to crawl/stand/wave etc etc messing big time with sleep.

I just kept up the naps and tried to catch him before he got tired - although they gradually shifted so he naps at the same time each day. Also early bedtimes for him and me helped me survive. And getting DH to do some of the work.

Just try and rest rest rest in the day and get out loads - the sunshine lifted my mood!