My baby is nearly 18 weeks old, and for the last three has been waking constantly in the night. She sleeps in 40 minute cycles, and at the end of each she wakes and can only be soothed by being put to the breast or taken into bed with us.
She goes down at 6.30-7 each night, and gets up at 8am, but will not sleep for longer than 40 minutes at a time. She has four naps in the day, but these are now only 40 minutes long as well.
Before the last three weeks she wasn't exactly a great sleeper - she would wake every three hours for feeds - but I felt I could cope with that. Now both she and I are exhausted all day and I feel I am reaching the end of my tether.
She switched from moses basket to cot at around the start of this - though thinking back I'm pretty certain the disturbance started before the move. But maybe being in a big empty cot is exacerbating her longing for the cosiness of arms or co-sleeping.
On the health visitor's advice, I started by tackling the daytime naps. She will often self-settle for those, though not once she wakes up again. In the night, I cannot get her to self-settle. I pat her and say something soothing. this never works so I then pick her up and rock her till she calms, but try to put her down before she is asleep. This sometimes works before midnight, but after that she goes beserk until I feed her.
What should I try? Give her a bottle or some babyrice at night? Controlled crying? Simply refuse to give her the breast? I am now so tired I have lost the ability to think clearly, so any advice would be appreciated.