HELP! 9 month old getting worse not better.

[AlCrowley]

DD has always been a terrible sleeper. I joked before she was born that I was due a non-sleeping baby this time after DS who slept through from 8 weeks and it really has come true.

After months of struggle, we'd finally gotten to the point where she was finally having 1 nap in the day then having a BF at 7pm and going to bed and waking at 1.30-ish for a feed then sleeping till 5.30-ish for a feed and being wide awake from then until her nap. We weaned at 5 months on the advice of the HV because she wasn't napping during the day at all! She now eats really well.

Again on the HV's advice, 4 days ago, I added a FF at bedtime along with her BF. She's never taken a bottle - just screams if you put one in her mouth - so we've been giving "bedtime milk" from a tippy cup. She maybe takes an ounce or two before she cries for boob at which point I BF her to sleep as normal. But since then, her sleep has gotten even worse. We now have the 7pm feed, an 11pm feed, then the 1am feed and an extra 3am feed before the 5.30 wake up. The only bonus is that her nap has extended to more like 90 mins most days.

So I'm giving up on the HV and asking MN - what do I do now? Do I ditch the FF or should I give it a few more days to see if she settles? Is there anything else i can do to encourage her to sleep through - or at least go back to just 2 wakes? DH, DS and I are all desperate for a full nights sleep now

Any advice would be appreciated

No temp. Even checked both ears to rule out infection. 36.6 in left and 36.8 in right.

Given up on nap. She's screamed herself awake

Hmmmm how odd. Teeth perhaps? Is she drooling lots and chewing everything in sight?

Follow her cues today I guess and try a nap again later?

No drool and no chewing. I'll take the buggy to soft play as I bet she'll fall asleep in the car on the way there

Second Sunshine's suggestion. Hope she feels better soon.

Well, she didn't fall asleep on the way to soft play but we stayed there for lunch and by 1 she was yawning so I fed her and she fell asleep. Laid her down in the buggy and she slept for an hour and 10 minutes even with all the screaming children running round!!

Bedtime has gone well although she is coughing occasionally. If she wakes later I'll definitely try some Calpol. She's seemed fine all day, it's the nights that are bad with this silly cold!

She's had another warm, steamy bath and the room stinks of Olbas again. I've lowered her mattress as I kept finding her rolled to the bottom of the bed last night.

Fingers crossed last night was the worst and we'll be back to normal now. DH and I are obviously getting too used to all the extra sleep because we're both shattered today!

Well that sounds good. She obviously needed it. Sounds like your master plan for tonight is perfect.

I use books too Sunshine

Poor DD has the box room so her Cotbed is wedged in next the the wardrobe in her room which leaves no room for tipping the whole thing. I put a pillow under the far end of her mattress instead. Think I should have used an old, squished one rather than one of the brand new ones we bought last week!

Cold was much better last night anyway so she didn't really need tipping. All was perfect until 4.45am when she started screaming. I went in to her and found her sat up and covered in sick!! The mattress was covered, so was her sleeping bag, her arms, her hands, her head!!!

I changed her and calmed her but she was still quite upset so I took the decision to just take her back to bed with me. We've worked so hard to stop co-sleeping but she was obviously feeling poorly and upset (she's never been sick before except the usual bringing up milk when tiny) so it was unlikely that she was going to go back to sleep in her own bed even if I changed it. She had a lovely feed and we fell asleep until 7.50am this morning!! Might have been longer if DS hadn't woken us up! Not perfect but I figured the rules could be relaxed if she was poorly.

She didn't want to nap this morning again though - didn't sleep until 3pm this afternoon!! Going to stick to bedtime routine as usual and we're home all day tomorrow so hopefully, we can stick to the daytime routine a bit better too. We went out for lunch today but they were so slow bringing us our food that we hadn't finished eating till 2pm and she usually naps at 1.30. She had about 45 minutes in the pushchair but it's just not the same as a proper nap in her cot.

No more sick today and her nose is running less so hopefully, she'll be better soon and we can get back to some good nights again.

The poor thing. I would have done the same as you in the circumstances. Hopefully tonight will be better

She looked poorly - and overtired - at bedtime so I've given her a dose of Calpol. She's all tucked up in her clean sleeping bag and I put a few drops of Olbas out as well even though she doesn't seem as snotty. Fingers crossed for a good nights sleep - DH and I both have sore throats and DH has had a headache as well as I think we've all got a bug of some sort. DS keeps saying he's ill too but I think he just fancied a taste of Calopl :) He's been running round like a loon all day so seems fine.

Yes DD does that too, if DS is being given some, she then says she's poorly too

Sorry you're not feeling great, maybe an early night would be best for you too!

I think that's a good idea.

DH has to be up at 3am to go to work!! so we could all do with the extra sleep

Oh my goodness, what does he do for a living? That is early.

He's a mainframe systems programmer. The mainframe he looks after serves a global company though so taking it down for updates has to be done when the least people are using it - which happens to be the very early hours of a Sunday morning. His team are supposed to share the Sunday mornings between them but because he is the team leader, whenever no-one else wants to do it (which is most weeks) he has to take over. He got up at 2.30am this morning and said he was going to be back around 7am so he should be home soon.

DD slept till 5.50am this morning so the Calpol and Olbas must have helped. She was wide awake then though so even though I took her back to my bed for a feed, we were up by 6.15. Good job I went to bed at 9.30 :)

So glad she slept well. Yeah my boy wakes up at about 6am most days but he does go to bed at 6.30pm and has a 2 hr nap everyday, so I mustn't complain.

Your poor H, he'll need a snooze today then after that nasty stint in the middle of the night. Yawning just thinking about it.

How's your cold?

Sore throat seems to be better. I guess it could have been tiredness yesterday making me feel grotty rather than a full blown cold. Still a bit snotty but I can cope with that.

DH will snooze while watching the F1, he always does :) He's out with DS at the moment so the house is quiet while DD sleeps - and she is! She'd had almost an hour so far. It's her first morning nap in 3 days!!

Well, she had just over an hours nap this morning and half an hour this afternoon. She was tired just before normal bath time so we did it early.

Fingers crossed for a good night. The snufflyness has gone and her nose hasn't been running today so hopefully we can get back to normal now.

That's great, she's just catching up on lost sleep today then. All sounds very promising.

Up at 5am!

She had a 40 minute long feed and then took 10 minutes of crying to fall back to sleep! Slept for 20 mins then had another little cry before sleeping till 6.30.

Heading in the right direction though. I'm just going to have to set the heating to come on earlier so it's not as cold when I have to get up to her :)

I nearly ended up being up at 5am too - but cheated and took DS2 into our bed for BF and extra snooze. He was also up shortly after midnight for a bottle. I think I might try dream feeds again - didn't work before but worth a try. Otherwise we're creeping back to being up twice a night again.

He has cut another tooth with relative little fuss in the last few days though.

No teeth here yet. DS had his first 2 come through together at 7 months but DD's have been visible under the gums for weeks but are yet to break through.

She's mostly stopped snoozing in our bed now too as it's become too exciting to be allowed back in. Apart from that morning she was sick, she tends to want to play after her feed now

45 minute nap this morning and none this afternoon.

I fed her and she fell asleep but when I laid her down, she immediately woke and cried. Tried feeding her from the other side but she was wide awake by then!

Bedtime was hard too. She fed for ages but again, when I went to lay her down, she woke and started routing again. DH had to rock her to sleep in the end as she just wanted to use me as a dummy

Will see how the night goes