Sleep Solution for a 9 month old

[milkymilky]

Ladies - I have been a lurker on this topic for sometime trying to find some help and support for my child's sleep issues. My daughter is nearly 9 months old and her sleeping seems to have no pattern at all, but more often than not a typical night goes like this. Asleep by 7.30PM (sometimes if she is really tired she will feed to sleep but is happy to self settle if not), then awake at 12 and then again at 03.30. Last night this happened and I fed her at midnight, with the hope that she would then go through to the morning, but no she was up at 0330 yelling. I picked her up and she was just being really irritable and wasn't happy being held by me or placed in her cot. 2 nights ago, she just woke once in the night and on Sunday night she slept through from 1930 till 0530 when i fed her and then she went back to sleep until 0830! Completely erratic and every night is a surprise.

So I have been reading through the different sleep solutions that you are all trying and I can't work out which one would apply. Controlled Crying for me would be a last resort as I am concerned that there are certain people believe that it causes psychological damage and I am not sure if it would work as she self settles when she goes to bed.

One thing to bear in mind is that I am currently living in the middle east and don't have access to the relevant books as they don't seem to be available here. Also worth mentioning is that she is breastfed and BLW'd, but has a good appetite and is on 3 meals a day now.

Please share with me your thoughts and ideas.

This sounds familiar. My 9mo DS also likes to keep me guessing where sleep is concerned. He is nearly always asleep by 7pm (mostly breast-fed to sleep, which I'm trying to avoid but he's really hard to rouse once he's dropped off...) but then the nights vary wildly. Last night was not good - he woke several times before midnight, then again at 12, slept until 4, at which point I fed him and he went back to sleep until 6.30.

However, a fortnight ago he was happily doing 10 and 11 hour stretches without waking at all.

I think teething plays a big part in this and am trying to go with the flow and not make things worse by getting stressy. The last time he had a spell of bad teething-induced waking, it seemed to me that for a while afterwards he was in the habit of waking up and expecting milk. After two nights of not feeding him but cuddling etc instead his sleep improved dramatically.

Teeth.
Little buggers are responsible for DS's waking in the night.
I think all you can do is cuddle/feed/dose with Calpol (or equivalent) as required and repeat to yourself "it's only another 18 years to go..."