baby never sleeps please help im exshausted

[weggy]

ok this will im sure will either amuse you or make you feel totally exshausted thinking of any other ways to settle my darling 5 month old baby girl.

she has never slept throught the night.

she is put to bed at 7pm/8pm she is bathed,massaged,bottle and food,given colic drops and teething gel before bed and allowed to play on play mat 40 mins before bed.has music light that put shapes on ceiling until she falls asleep after 5 -30 mins of crying she uses a dummy to sleep.also sometimes a hot water bottle placed in bed and removed before sleep as well as a calmomille plug in and calmomille tea before bed to settle.
she wakes at 11 pm i give another bottle then settle her takes between 10 mins to 2 hrs sleeps 30mins -1hr wakes repeadily all night until i have enough at 7am.
this has been going on for 8 weeks i get roughly 3 hrs max of sleep a night.
i have tried milk,rocking,cuddling,dummy,winding,controlled crying she is impossible to settle.
she has seen a cranial osteopath as a young baby,she is now this week going to see a homeopath who has told me to give her nux(calming sleeping homapathic tablet,rescue remedy to calm her and homapathic tablet called calmomille as well as her teething gel,colic drops,massage,bath etc so will this wrok. she laughs all day and sleeps in cot fine during the day she is not ill and is rather foward than backward very allert. she sleeps no more than four hours, she is given hungry baby milk and 4x food a day and 5-7 bottles a day. any advice anyone as i feel ill and am living on my nerves. is this just sleep deprivation!!!!

have you tried doing a dream feed at 10pm, don't wake her up, if you can help it, just pick her up, stick bottle in, she should drink it, stick her back in cot and see what happens?

Ds went through a bad patch a couple of weeks ago and what eventually sorted him was switching his light off as soon as I put him down - he went to sleep without a peep and lasted the whole night. Previously I'd been leaving his lantern light on assuming that it comforted him and his crying was due to something else - but I think it actually stimulated him too much.

Didn't clock that she was only 5mo - perhaps indeed she is overindulging on the solids and her insides are bothering her. I'd ease off and definitely not give her anything solid immediately before bedtime.
I thought fennel tea was good for babies rather than camomile?

weggy - how long did you do cc for? it can take a little while and requires nerves of steel. Alternatively you could try the pick up put down method. Either way it will take time - good luck!

Have you thought of co-sleeping? I had a lot of trouble with DS mainly due to horrendous eczema and the only way any of us could get any sleep was to co-sleep. I think when you are suffering from sleep deprivation it is really important that you get sleep any way you can. If you have good support then use this as a means to get sleep/

Co-sleeping doesn't suit everyone and my DD who is a better sleeper than ds prefers her cot to our bed.

don't give food before bed, possibly reduce the food in general - 4 meals per day sounds quite a lot for a 5 month old. go for fennel tea rather than camomile tea. what happened with the controlled crying? how didn't that work?

I think you have too many crutches personally. Drop some of the food so that she has a bigger milk feed at 7pm. ditch the light - sounds too stimulating.

make sure you feed her at 11pm in as dark and quiet a room as poss.

then leave her to cry

I presume you are going to bed when she does at 8 pm - if not start now! I know it seems very depressing but it is the only uninterrupted period of sleep you will get till things improve so you should make that your priority. Everything will seem so much easier if you can just get a little more sleep, make sure you lie down when she does during the day as well.

I would second drosophila and say try co-sleeping just to get you through this horrific patch. The props and methods you are using are clearly not working so I would ditch everything and go back to basics - warm bath, milk, cuddle, dark room, much less solids in day, if any - this could be making her very unsettled.

Best of luck and rest assured none of us are going to be laughing as we all know how dreadful not enough sleep makes you feel.

i am waiting to be punced on for this, but stop everything you are doing.

stop giving her solids for a week and see what happens.

DO give her a bath before bed, and a bottle, but stop the 40mins of playtime before bed. make bathtime slightly later. feed her in a quiet dimmed room (not totally dark, watch tv if you want, just keep the volume low). is she teething and does she have colic? if you dont think she is teething then dont bother with the teething gel, and same goes for colic drops.

and ditch the light.

keeping things simple and it may be easier.

Sorry, couldn't resist. How do you punce anyway, I've never done it before?

sorry wiggly baby on my knee, was meant to be pounced.

actually misdee I agree with you
I think this bedtime routine is just tooooo complicated
too many props - keep it simple
and I would second Franny's suggestion of going to bed when she does. Crashingly dull I know but I promise it will make such a difference if it is possible.

im with misdee!

Misdee not to worry I have had some stonking typos this week and I have no excuse

I agree with Misdee too - good post . ds2 is 6 months and my night routine is bath bottle bed at 6.30 pm then he wakes at 3 am for a bottle and goes straight back to sleep until 7 ish. I put him down in his room in the dark with the door open and the landing light on - have never bothered with night lights etc as they are just too stimulating. Good luck.

Silent reflux (acid indigestion without the possetting) is a possibility. If she is waking up crying and looks like she is in pain until you sit her up then it might be worth looking into. Overfeeding does aggravate silent reflux and she does sound like she likes her nosh

I must say though - I agree with Misdee that your bedtime routine is a bit too much and may be stimulating her at the wrong times.

usually, dd3 is asleep by 8.30 after a bath some nightsm feed then bed. i put her in her sleeping bag before i feed her. usually sleeps through to 4-6am.

i say usually as she hyas chicken pox atm and is comfort feeding more.

You cannot possibly survive on 3 hours a night. Okay you can but it's not good for you!
Make sure you sleep whenever she has a daytime nap. Honestly stop doing housework, going out, whatever you were planning and get into bed the moment she closes her eyes. Vital for your sanity

what do you think about co-sleeping as franny suggests? I think it might help through a difficult patch

oh yes, co-sleeping is fab. i am about to shift my bed aginst the wall so i an pop dd3 straight into my bed tonight when we both finally fall asleep.

Would also recommend co-sleeping if you can.

big big big big sympathy...dont know the answer as I am still going through the three hours sleep a night thing with my ten month old.....

Sleep deprivation is a horrible thing. Are you back at work yet?

I have a thread called sleepless in newcastle...lots of people suggesting several different things.....one thing has partially worked for me.....

xx

Just re-read your inital post...
I agree with the other posters....maybe cut out the solids for a week and see if she will take a bigger milk feed. Bedtime sounds very 'busy' - could the massage be before tea time and bath time just before her final milk feed and bed?

When and for how long does she nap in the day?