advice needed please - 18 week old baby

[seriouslysleepdeprived17]

Hi there - I have ready every book going and done everything I can think of and don't know what else to try so am hoping someone might have an ingenious idea! Our sleep situation is really not that bad - its just that it hasn't got any better for at least two months and I thought things might be getting better by now. My DD doesn't nap well during the day - its easy to settle her to sleep in her cot, but then she will never nap for more than about 45 mins, even if I try and resettle her when she wakes up.
At night she has her last feed and goes down really well at about 7.30pm. She then almost always sleeps soundly till we do a dreamfeed of expressed or formula milk at 11pm. After that, she usually sleeps till at least 2am but after that all bets are off = she usually wakes every hour or so till at about 6am, when we give up for the night! I don't think she wakes because she is hungry - she is gaining weight well and usually settles back to sleep without needing to be fed first, she just constantly wakes up. She is in a grobag, and so its not throwing off her bedding or anything like that, and in any event she sleeps well between her 7.30pm feed and 2 or 3 so I don't think she is uncomfortable for any reason in the cot. Does anyone have any tips for getting babies to stay asleep? I can settle her quite easily, just can't get her to stay asleep continuously through the night without going in at least 3 or 4 times to settle her back down.
Any ideas v. much appreciated.

Hi there, I think we had a similar problem to you a while back. We had always done the dreamfeed but after a set of jabs things all went crazy! (DS generally waking, needing settling every hour after about 1-2am). I read somewhere in my search for a solution that the dreamfeed can disturb some babies natural sleep cycles. Have you always done a dreamfeed? Maybe drop it and wait for her to wake and feed, may not work but maybe worth a go?

Hmmm. That's an interesting thought - thanks for the reply natters. I wonder whether that can be right when she sleeps for at least three hours after the dreamfeed usually. I feel like if we skip the dreamfeed she will wake for a feed by 12 or 1am and then the night will go downhill from then instead of being not too bad until 2 or 3. Did you try skipping the dreamfeed? What happened?

Our problems differed a bit as DS was needing to be resettled between 7-11pm. We fed him when he woke a bit earlier in the evening and then left him. It did mean he woke at say 3ish but this was little sacrafice as he then settled easily until morning.
good luck :)

I can't offer much in the way of advice but I'm really envious. A 4-month-old who sleeps in the cot from 7.30 till 2!!! You get an evening AND a solid block of sleep! To put your situation in perspective, my nearly-4-month old sleeps to a similar schedule but will only sleep on me or my husband (he wakes if I so much as dare to lie him next to me), wakes throughout the evening to be fed and then generally again at 2, 4, 5 and 6. I do change his nappy at 4- otherwise he just wriggles and fusses so perhaps that's a factor for you?

Also, our naps are rarely longer than 25min and have to be moving (pram or bouncy chair) or on one of us. My first child was the same but once he was mobile (therefore more tired) naps sorted themselves out and became much longer (and in the cot).

We have a similar problem here, but the timing is a bit later. Ds goes to bed around 830, feeds at 12 and 3 and is then restless from about 4.

We have recently made an effort not to feed again after 3 or 4.

You could try nudging the dreamfeed later, or the 2am feed later by a few mins each day, then at least your unsettled period would be shorter.

Another thought would be to try changing the nappy, I know ds gets very restless when his is full.

Finally, might she be getting cold? Our bedroom gets chilly towards dawn and I think that may be a factor. Have you got a thermometer in the room?

I shall be interested in others' ideas.