9 month old waking several times a night and not settling for hours at a time

[Suchanamateur]

Is there anything I can do? This has only just started happening although wake ups have been becoming gradually more frequent. Before she could be settled with some patting cuddles or a feed. Now, she'll just cry and cry for upwards of an hour each time. We're all exhausted and she is getting increasingly overtired with naps being affected which is impacting on night sleep and the viscous cycle continues. I have no idea what to do. She's had a series of colds and the doctor says her ears look a bit sore so I've been dosing her up but it does seem to make a lot of difference. Is there anything I can do?

Well there is a developmental leap around 9 months.

That plus sore ears can't be helping.

What happens if you cuddle her? Or bring her in with you? My DD went through this (she's now 1 and happy in her cot).

Think it must be partly developmental. If I cuddle/pat she's calm for a bit then gets frustrated and starts thrashing around, trying to grab my arms/ face etc. I've been bringing her into our bed in the early morning and sometimes she'll sleep sometimes she'll just get cross or roam around poking us. Unfortunately the cosleeping thing is a long term bone of contention between DH and I (going back to DS' babyhood) and we just end up arguing about it.

How long did your DD go through this? I vaguely remember it with DS as was also Xmas time and I remember being especially tired, but I've blocked out most of the detail.

A couple of weeks from memory? I had more success trying to get her to sleep then waiting a bit and putting her down.

Both of mine did it - it was horrid at the time...!

Shame you and your DH argue - does he think it went on too long.

He has never liked it and yes - he thought it went on too long with DS at the beginning (prob only first few months) and blamed our subsequent sleep issues on it. Absolute rubbish of course. History repeated itself with DD but her sleep did improve a lot when we moved her into her own cot at 3 months (waking hourly before then). But we always end up arguing about sleep stuff although I suspect that is mainly a function of the sleep deprivation.

I will just have to hold out then. Hate seeing DD - usually so chilled - so upset.

My 9month old is doing this too. He'd previously slept through 80% of the time so its slowly killing us - I'm soo tired. No idea what to do about it. :-(

PetaO sorry you are suffering too. We are 45 unhappy minutes into our first wake...

yup, my 9 month old is the same, he will settle when cuddled but as soon as you put him in the cot he is awake again and boy does he scream. he learned to crawl yesterday after trying for ages and last night he slept like a log. I have been actively encouraging him to crawl away today in the hopes he will tire himself out, we will see what tonight brings....

Have you taken her to see a chiropractor? We suffered with DS4's poor sleep for about four years. I took him to see a McTimoney Chiropractor who did an examination and found that he had several vertebrae out of alignment. This was a result of his birth. A quick bit of manipulation and he slept through the night for the first time ever, that night.

link here