Nightwaking - 7 month old

[lydia12]

Hello all, advice needed. My 7 month old has never been a great sleeper but the last 4 weeks she has been waking up 5 or 6 times between bedtime (7ish) and morning (7ish). I am hopeless at letting her cry, and usually give in to feed but I am now a bit demented with no sleep and need solutions!
I've been exclusively breastfeeding, on demand. Am trying to wean her using BLW but not sure she's actually swallowing anything so far. Her weight is really healthy so she can't be starving...
She sleeps twice in the day - once for up to an hour, and once for about 35 minutes - that is a routine she sort of created herself.
A couple of nights this week I tried letting her cry it out at 3am ish but after an hour of screaming I am so upset I ended up feeding her anyway, which I know is proabbly making more of a rod for my own back.

Does anyone have experience of solving this sort of problem? SOme of my friends say to try formula at night, some say to do the whole sleep training or controlled crying thing - I'm not sure I can handle too much upset though....oh dear!
Advice gratefully received.

I forgot to also say at the moment she is still in our room, though I am moving her out this weekend to see if that helps. Also she got two teeth through at 6 months and has just started crawling, if any of that might be relevant...

hi lydia..i too have a seven month old DD and she has just started waking again through the night. She previously slept from 7pm to 7am (from 8 weeks)so i was surprised when she started waking. She has two teeth through at 6 months and like you i hate to hear her cry. She is alo still in our room.

I have exclusively breastfed until she was 6 months and then introduced solids. I have now started to give her some purees and some yoghurt etc through the day because i also tried BLW and i noticed that on the days i tried that she woke at night. This made me think that she wasn't getting enough food into her. Since doing the mixed feeding methods with breastfeeding she has settled again and is now sleeping through. Perhaps now your DD is starting to crawl etc she is more active and could just be that bit more hungrier. From my previous baby i know that some babies just waken when they hear other people in the room and aren't able to settle again without a feed, especially if breastfeeding but i didn't find the move to their own room made much difference.

At least we know they are normal lol. Hope this settles for you soon x

Yep, a whole lot of us here and here have similar problems and some of us have seen progress - my now 8 m.o. DS has improved a lot, although it's two steps forward, one back (as ever).

I'm working on ideas from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and the No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.

My guess would be that your DD's problem might be insufficient daytime sleep combined with a feeding-to-sleep association. Depending on which books you read, the average 6 month old would have around 3.5 hours' naps, while a 9 month old would average 3 hours.

Hmmm, thank you both. I will try more food idea for sure. Also I agree that insufficient daytime sleep is a problem, I simply don't know how to help her to more sleep...she was sleeping three times a day but seems to have dropped that no matter how hard I try to keep that pattern.

Angeldog I am now reading all your posts you sent me too - so helpful! it's also just so good to know you and others have been through such similar expereinces

Hi Lydia, my 8mo ds has never been a great sleeper either, takes sometimes hours to settle in the evening and recently woke up 6-8 times a night. Could only settle him by bf. He sleeps with me, that's so much easier than to get up to him, and I take naps with him to avoid sleep deprivation and keep sanity. And he also sleeps longer when close to me.
I think his difficult settling and wakings (getting better the last 2 nights) are due to teething, crawling and learning to stand up/walk. He takes bf at night for comfort rather than food. Ensuring he crawls, walks a lot (= gets tired)also helps.
Now reading Sleepless in America by Kurcinka - the is comprehensive and kind to children.

Glad they're helpful, lydia! :)

thanks everyone. niceday - sometimes when people say disapprovingly to me 'oh dear, she's only using you as a massive dummy for comfort' i think - well, really what is wrong with that! what's wrong with a bit of comfort...