Please help, feeling desperate (sorry bit long)

[GeeandTee]

DD is 7mo and never been a good sleeper. When she was little she would only sleep on me so I used the sling lots in the day and although I kept trying to get her to sleep in her cot she would end up sleeping on my chest in the night.

She did get better and we had a good phase of her sleeping well in her cot, only waking to feed every 4 hours and she now naps in her cot for 3 half hour sessions in the day.

BUT for the last month or so she has been waking at least every 2 hours, amd for the last 2 weeks she's been waking every 10 minutes from around 1am onwards. The only way I can ever get her back to sleep is by rocking, so I do that, put her down and then she wakes up again 10 mins later. I have tried:

Shush pat - just winds her up
Co-sleeping - she just wants to "talk" to me and bat at me and still cries when she can't sleep
PUPD - again just winds her up even more
Music/white noise - makes no difference
Dummy - she won't take
Comforter - she has one and loves wrestling with it but doesn't help with sleep
Calpol/teething gel/teething powder - makes no difference
Stroking, resting hand on chest etc - sometimes works for a few minutes then she gets wound up again

She is ebf, on solids at 6 months but still not eating much. Have tried cutting out dairy but not a massive difference.

She's absolutely fine in the day, very placid, amuses herself, giggly, cuddly, no signs of pain/reflux or anything. And will usually sleep ok from 7.30 to midnight.

I am SO sleep deprived, I have a toddler with SN as well and although I have been coping OK on little sleep I am reaching the end of my tether and worried I am actually going to make myself ill or collapse with exhaustion or something. I have NO IDEA what else to do. Should I try and get a sleep expert involved or something?

Please please does anyone have any suggestions?

Have nothing helpful to add as am in the same cycle but just wanted to say you are not alone. Hope you get this sorted.

Maybe she's having a growth spurt and is hungry? If my DD wakes 10mins after getting her to sleep again, thats usually what it is.

Exactly what we had. Hated doing it but we did controlled crying at 8 months. Did it once the first nIght for 30 mins and she slept 11 hours. Then 8 mins the second night. Since then no problems and she's 5 now! It's a balancing act between what you're comfy with and not letting both you and your LO fall apart from overtiredness...

That sounds absolutely hideous. Poor you.

I would nip her down to the GPs to check for anything that might be worse when lying down at night -e.g., ear infections, chest infections (although you'd perhaps expect some symptoms with the latter...!) Some babies (e.g., my DS can have massively inflamed eardrums/ tonsils etc and you can be none the wiser because they're apparently so stoic.

Failing that..... arrrgh, I just don't know what to suggest. Does she snore at all? Do you suspect any allergies - is that why you are doing dairy free?? How is her general health and growth?

One thing I do know is that for some reason even phenomenally crap sleepers can often manage to do the first few hours of an evening like logs. And then have you up all night long.

Thanks everyone.

Forgot to say that I won't do controlled crying. I really don't think it would work anyway as when I've been stuck in traffic and she's due her nap she has screamed for up to 45mins before I could stop the car, get out and rock her to sleep and then put her back in!

No other symptoms, good health - only one cold since she had bronchiolitis at 4 weeks, she's on 91st centile and chubby :)

She doesn't snore, is a very quiet sleeper. I don't really suspect allergies but thought I would try without dairy for 3 days just in case but it made no difference.

Anyway, last night she slept through until 5.15am!! Didn't do anything different. She was then awake until 6.30 though and we get up at 7 so I still didn't get a full night but it was a massive improvement. We'll see what happens tonight, not getting my hopes up...