going mad.

[ragingmull]

My 10 month old is still waking 2 to 3 times a night and my DH and I are starting to go a little bit mad.

We have a vague routine of dinner, bath then bed but the timing can range from a 6.30 bedtime to 8pm bedtime.

He usually wakes about midnight then either settles with his dummy or has to have a feed. He will then wake at some point between 2 and 4, then again at about 5 most nights.

It is a real struggle to get him to bed at night and it often takes up to an hour for him to settle. He barely sleeps during the day, maybe two 2 hour naps if we're lucky and that is only if we spend the majority of it lying down with him.

We are all absolutely knackered and DH is struggling to work properly as he is awake half the night.

Any advice or tips? He is currently in a crib by our bed although we buying a cot bed this week.

Will the cot bed go in a different room? You might find it easier to sleep with him in a separate room, and he might find it easier too as you won't all be disturbing each other.

Can you do alternate night wakings? DH and I did this and it made life so much more bearable. Even though we both still woke up, whoever wasn't doing the settling got to go straight back to sleep and we felt human for 50% of the time (better than nothing!)

Finding a long term solution is about what's right for you and your baby. Some people find the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley a godsend, other people find that CC or even CIO work for them. The only thing that worked for us was CIO when DD was 14mo, but we resorted to that after nothing else worked and we spent two hours with her screaming and fighting us while we made every attempt to settle her in any other way we could. Three or four days or so later, she went down for a nap in the morning no problem (instead of being cuddled to sleep and sneaked into her cot) and went to bed at 6.30pm - we stopped offering milk when she woke up at night (she was only taking about 2oz at this point anyway) and within another week or so she was sleeping for 12 hours.

It's not for everyone though, and certainly at 10mo I wouldn't have done it, there are gentler methods you can try first, and it was only after nothing else worked that we took that step out of sheer desperation.

It's not forever though, one day you WILL get a full night's sleep. Hang on in there!