7 month old wakes up every 2 hours at night!

[Amee]

My 7 month old daughter has never been one for sleeping at night, but recently she has been waking up every two hours (she used to wake up 3 times a night). I have put this down to two things: 1) She has not taken to solids and is still on breastmilk (this is a problem which I have put to the "food" discussion forum) and 2) she is going through the teething stage. The only way I can settle her back down to sleep again is by feeding her, which I now goes against every text book around, but I have tried the "controlled crying" method but my daughter just cries until she vomits and that's even more work for me, especially at 3 am! Will this constant feeding every 2 hours really give her a bad habit in months to come? I don't know what else to do.

Amee -I feel for you but it's a bit difficult to answer this without more information. Have you read Gina Ford's book. I am not referring to the routines but all her experience with sleep and feeding ? A lot of women found it very useful even if they chose not to follow her routines - 2 friends of mine have read her book after they had had difficulties with their first babies and told me that x- y - z advice was something they had never thought about but it made so much sense. Neither have followed the routine for their second baby but have told me that they have handled things differently because of what they had read.

You can view her Q&As on this site and maybe your library has her book The contented little baby book. It's only 8 GBP anyway but she might tell you something you would not have thought about.

What is her daytime sleep like ? I don't think (I may of course be wrong) that she is waking up because she is breastfed or teething... IMO she is probably not sleeping well/enough ? during the day and probably therefore not eating enough during the day.
Please post more informtion or read GF's book because I am sure you can resolve this.

Poor you - you must be absolutely shattered. Don't think you daughter will be waking up simply because she is breastfed, but she may me hungry if she hasn't taken to solids. And, to some extent she may be waking partly through habit and partly through hunger.
Like Pupuce, I'd suggest you have a read of Gina Ford - much less drastic than controlled crying, which from what I understand is only relevant if your child has a sleep problem. GF's advice might help you eliminate some of the other reasons first before you try controlled crying.
Good luck

Amee, just to reassure you, our son's sleep pattern was similar to your daughter's (not as bad!) at 7 months and by a year he was sleeping through. We chose not to do controlled crying - I think to make this technique work you need to be 100% sure at the outset you can see it through. At times I wondered whether we had made the right decision (ie, not to opt for CC) but letting him grow out of it did work for us. I hope things improve for you soon, I know how exhausting it can be. I have to say, we had him in bed with us and that did also seem to help. Not a solution for everyone, of course!

I do sympathise with you - my 13 week baby still wakes sometimes in the night for a feed (once a night, if at all, but could be any time - earliest 3 am or latest 5 am - if she doesn't sleep through).

I have come back to work today and am feeling shattered and I was only woken once in the night at 5 am to feed the baby - she was back in her crib (awake) by 5:20 am so it wasn't too bad, but I know how awful it is to be waken during the night.

She is my third baby and I have found my other two (and this one, I hope) to be good sleepers - once they go through the night, that is more or less it cracked!

I definitely believe in the "controlled crying" part. Two weeks ago I started putting my baby in her crib (which is still in our room) at night awake so she could get used to going to sleep on her own. I find that if she has not fallen asleep within 5 minutes, she needs re-settling. Some people may not agree with me, but I then get her up (still in the darkened room), settle her in my arms until she stops strongly crying but then put her back in her crib, still awake. The most I have had to do this in one night is once, although sometimes she doesn't need re-settling at all.

Another good read I would recommend is the Penelope Leach (a well known midwife) Complete Guide to Childcare. It is written from a child's point of view - for example, regarding baby's waking in the night, she says that a "young baby" cannot make itself wake up on purpose just to annoy the parent, the same as an adult cannot consciously make themselves awake in the middle of the night. Even though both my other children have always been good sleepers, I got this book as a present when my second child (son) was born, and it is really such a good read, I cannot recommend it enough. It covers children from 0 to 5 years of age, and covers everything from feeding, sleeping, behaviour, general childcare, etc.

My only suggestion is keep going with the solids, I am sure it is hunger (however I will check out the food forum). With my first I was still feeding her once a night until she was 13 months old, but she was prem. and therefore very small. I was told they can't sleep through until they are big enough to go without food for a length of time. She finally cracked it at 13 months and 15lbs in weight! (she was 1 lb 12 oz at birth). However everyone experiences are different.

I bet this is just a stage and you are not creating a long term problem, with babies of this age they seem to do things forever, then when you look back it was only a few weeks. If she needs feeding, feed her, get the food side cracked and the sleep will come. Then once you know she is eating enough she will be more ameanable to sleeping better and you could try CC then. All the books suggest not trying this until a baby is at least 6 months. At seven months she is still a little young to really use CC.

Good luck!

Give her a bottle or two or three! Go by your instincts not the books.

I used to have several bottles made up and in the fridge door for nights and early mornings because my son, the little bugger just wouldn't sleep longer than 2 hours!! I couldn't keep up with the breastfeeding and went onto bottles which suited everyone. He just wanted feeding, and if I tried to do it the way the books suggested, I had an irate child and no sleep for everyone. He didn't sleep through till he was about 8 months old. I could do the bottles in the microwave in my sleep - 1 minute 11 seconds from fridge cold to baby!! The trick is to get there before they start to squeak!

A woman who came to my post baby classes insisted on feeding her baby 4 hourly (thats what the book said in those days!) and her baby screamed and screamed - the rest of us fed 'on demand' and had much quieter lives and more sleep!!

How could feeding a baby every 2 hours store up trouble for later? Follow your instincts, you know your own baby better than any 'expert'!

As crunchie says, get the food side cracked and the sleep will come - and if it's still a problem, then you might consider options like controlled crying.

And, like Kia, I had bottles at the ready for my son, and gave them to him pretty much on demand when he was 7 months. He used to wake up 3 times a night. This dwindled quite naturally until he was sleeping through for 11 hours at two and a bit. OK, a long time to wait for the miracle to happen, but to be honest, I wasn't that stressed about it. This was because after a feed :

1. He went back to sleep effortlessly
2. I went back to sleep effortlessly - very, very important, this!!!!

If this hadn't been the case, I would have been more proactive in changing his sleeping pattern.

Amee, you also say your baby is going through the teething stage. Why not give her a recomended dose of Calpol, or something similar, just as you put her down for the night, even if she seems OK then. If her teething problems start up during the night, she will already have some painkilling substance in her system to counteract the pain. I used to do this with my sons, every now and then, and it seemed to work.

Good Luck

We are just having a similar problem: dd (nearly 6 months) is now teething, resulting in her waking and staying awake, babbling loudly! Calpol helps but takes a while to kick in. Totally destroying our routine, and God knows what the neighbours in our terrace think as dd sees how loudly she can shout at 3am.

Can anyone tell us how long the teething lasts? How long might we expect the pain from this one tooth that is erupting to continue? Is it "on/off" or is it to be like this until they all come through? Books seem to say rather little.

Amee, I think the changes you describe are down to teething!

Newdad, Yes, that's the problem with Calpol.The effects aren't immediate enough. If you go the Calpol route, try giving it to her before the pain begins, ie when she is first put down to sleep, rather than waiting for the screams to begin in the early hours.

Obviously you can't make a habit of this, but since she is teething, you know the pain/waking up pattern is not going to last forever.

Dear NewDad - our ds sprouted his first 2 teeth simultaneously and the next 2 within 24hours of each other(all at around 7months), the next 4 came more slowly, but it wasn't until his first molar started sprouting that he has shown any sign of real discomfort (on and off since ds turned 1yr, the tooth didn't appear until last week, he's nearly 15months). Perhaps we were just lucky. It didn't disturb his sleep, and we only occassionally resorted to Bonjela type applications to help with pain. They are much more immediate acting, and last a good while. Perhaps its becoming more of a resettling issue, rather than teething. Have you thought about "controlled crying" to encourage your dd to resttle at night? I know its not to everyones tastes. Might be worth a go, perhaps after an application of teething gel to help with the teething discomfort.
A word on calpol, its only effective for about 4-6 hours, so if your dd is going off to sleep in the early evening, a dose then won't have any effect by 3am.

Dear NewDad - our ds sprouted his first 2 teeth simultaneously and the next 2 within 24hours of each other(all at around 7months), the next 4 came more slowly, but it wasn't until his first molar started sprouting that he has shown any sign of real discomfort (on and off since ds turned 1yr, the tooth didn't appear until last week, he's nearly 15months). Perhaps we were just lucky. It didn't disturb his sleep, and we only occassionally resorted to Bonjela type applications to help with pain. They are much more immediate acting, and last a good while. Perhaps its becoming more of a resettling issue, rather than teething. Have you thought about "controlled crying" to encourage your dd to resttle at night? I know its not to everyones tastes. Might be worth a go, perhaps after an application of teething gel to help with the teething discomfort.
A word on calpol, its only effective for about 4-6 hours, so if your dd is going off to sleep in the early evening, a dose then won't have any effect by 3am.

Thanx everyone on your advice. Pupuce, dd sleeps an hour and half in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and she feeds on average five times a day. I will be off into town tomorrow in search of the GF book that you and a few others have recommended.

Kia, I would love to give my dd a bottle, but that is another problem I have - she will not drink from a bottle/beaker!! Am I the only mum to have a daughter who doesn't sleep, eat solids or feed from anything other than me??!!

NewDad - I know what you mean about the teething stage lasting ages. Dd has been at it on/off for a couple of months and still no sign of her first tooth!

Amee - you will see in GF's book that she recommends that a child have a short nap (45 min max) in the AM and a much longer one (2h) in the afternoon, after lunch. I suspect your daughter is going to bed very tired and falls into a deep sleep... Also you will probably see that she needs to feed VERY well at 7 AM (or when ever you wake her up) - for that she must be hungry and not have fed for several hours. You would then let her have a nap at 9h or so and wake her up (open the curtains, remove her banklet - that sort of waking up... nothing "violent" after 45 minutes of sleep... let her play and feed her again at around 1130/1200 (with or without solids - if you are able to start solids then let her have her milk first). Put her down for a nap at 12h15 (latest) and let her sleep in a very dark room for at least 2 hours. If she wakes after 45 minutes (which is common as babies have sleeping patterns of 45', try to not go to her (unless necessary of course) she should settle herself back to sleep. When she is finished with her nap between 2h30 and 3h... give her a feed (GF recommends not to let her feed after 3PM - and as she is currently having some difficulty with her sleep I would follow that "Strict" advice. If your child is very easy than you can be more flexible). If she is having some solids you might want to give her something at 5PM and then breastfeed her after 6h15PM. Put her down at 7PM LATEST. If you are worried that she will not be able to last until 7 AM - then wake her up gently at 1030PM and feed her one more time but in the dark and with no stimulation....

If you do try this, do let me know how you get on. The trick is to make her eat enough during the day for her not to be hungry during the night and if she sleeps well during the day she won't go to bed exhausted and have a difficult night. I can vouch for the overtired babies having bad nights. The more your baby sleep during the day does not necessarily mean that they won't sleep well during the night. It is quite the contrary especially at her age. It gets trickier later !
If you can't get her hungry enough during the day because she still eats to much at night, try giving her water in the night... I never had to do it myslef but I know a couple of friends who have tried it and found it really good advice.

Amee, I agree with Pupuce, you can try the Gina Ford Way - Sleeping and Feeding. We started it at 6 weeks - simply because I was so desperate - we were all so miserable. Ironically the day I found out about the Gina Ford book was the day that I begged my HV to write down a plan for feeding and sleeping - she refused BTW. So I took my sreaming ds to our nearest town and pushed him around the shops like a woman possessed, I bumped into another mother who had a contented baby - and for us the rest is history. My ds was sleeping the gina way by the next day - However, it did take some perseverance and all three of us crying at times, but a year down the line, FOR US it was the right way to go. Good Luck. I asked a similar question on another thread and with a little help and advice from other mumsnetters I hope that I have solved our little problem.

Amee, I too would go along with what Pupuce has said. DS is a "Gina" baby, from about 8weeks, and the only thing I'd add, is that ds found it really difficult to nap at lunch time. He wouldn't feed particularly well before going down, would settle well and then wake 45mins later, as Pupuce has predicted might happen. I had to feed ds again with a top up bf in the dark, no talking etc, etc and then resettle back in the cot. He'd often cry for a good 20 minutes but would sleep. As his feeding got better, he never had a great appetite, this problem did settle, but we had to go through some days of leaving him to cry. But usually never longer than 20minutes. HTH!

Thanks for all your advice! DD has sprouted 2 new front teeth, and after 2 days of being gripey now the teeth have both come through the gum she is back to her old self. Horray! "Controlled crying" wasn't the answer because she wasn't really crying, just being very loud and vocal (babbling) to herself at night. Most of the time she didn't care if we were there or not!

Amee, on a different note, our dd would also not take any liquids from a bottle or cup, until as a last resort we tried giving her very diluted baby juice - just enough flavour for her to taste and she was very keen! She doesn't seem to like formula milk or boiled water at all. I think the fact that she has never had a bottle (breast only) proved a problem when the time came for solids and thus extra liquid. Just have to watch out for sugars and beware of her developing a sweet tooth I guess.

Amee I have not read any of the responses to your dilema but as it struck a chord i felt i must respond straight away.
We have 4 children from the ages of 3months to 6 years, all of whom were breastfed until they felt ready to stop. I think the important thing in this matter is maximaizing sleep time for all the family. If that means that little one feeds to drop off and god forbid sleeps in your bed then DO IT. It has now been over 6 years since my husband and i had an uninterupted nights sleep - everyone plays musical beds at night but at least there are no tears and everyone gets some sleep. The first major breakthrough for us was when the eldest started school and he generally sleeps in his own bed now all night on his own. So we know we only have 5 more years left before we can call the bed our own again.
There are obviously times when we find this frustrating but in the main we are both very happy with the set up. I have been able to sleep whilst feeding babes on my side and have always enjoyed waking up with 1 or more of the little darlings next to me. - they always look adorable when asleep.
Just buy a bigger bed and enjoy it while it lasts they wont want to do it forever.
Try reading '3 in a bed' by deborah jackson or subscribe to natural parent magazine - there are plenty of examples of people who choose to be guided by their babes regarding feeding and sleeping.
N.b my first 2 stopped feeding at 15 mnths and no. 3 stopped feeding at 30mnths.

Amee, I expect you've tried a little cup? My friend's children went straight from breast to ever increasing sized cup - I was green with envy. I know some kids just don't like the idea, but you usually find that if they get hungry or thirsty or curious enough they'll take it off the back of a rhino horn if necessary. Perhaps just leave a cup (lidded type) where she can find it to play with and put something nice in it that you know she likes and next time she shouts for a drink say - where's your cup then?!

Got the book!!! I wish I knew about this earlier, for example, when I was pregnant! Though I feel that some bits I am unable to do by the book, I know I can use it as a guidline. If I ever have another baby, I would certainly use GF's method from the start.
On Monday night we darkened the room and dd only woke up twice throughout the whole night! Mum felt refreshed and ready to go yesterday! However, last night was a different story - dd was back to her ususal 2 hour stints, but I do think dd was overtired yesterday and her daytime sleep was not enough.
Lill, I must admit, I do sometimes bring dd into bed with me, purely because I have had enough of getting up every 2 hours and it seemed easier to have her in with me.
NewDad and Kia - I have tried to give liquid from a beaker/cup, though my dd is happy accepting these in her mouth she spits out the contents! I will keep trying - one day I'll get there!

Amee---- come down girl
You'll soon see there are a bunch of GF skeptic on this site. Obviously you haven't read the current "frequent feed" thread !!!!
I am glad if her stuff helps you, it has help a lot of us and if you have a question regarding her book, you can always post on mumsnet, one of "us" will try to help. The key is to take what you like in the book and leave the rest out. Be sure to read her Q&As, I found them useful and some of her case stories are quite interesting. You can also refer to the Q&As which are on this site (via the home page).

Would love to know how Amee got on w CLB and 7 month old sleep probs.

My dd is 6 mo. old in 10 days time and I return to work in 20 days time. She is fully breastfed has taken milk from a bottle in the past ( from dh only) or a few sips of water from a cup but refuses either at present, day or night. Have thought this might be teeth , but no improvement with cal gel/ calpol or teetha and no sign of teeth yet.

At present she wakes up to 5 times ( screaming if unattended) between midnight and 7am. I tend to feed her twice during that time and just try to settle her the others i.e feeding when settling fails. Settling involves putting hairdryer on low in corner of room and she falls back asleep almost immediately if its going to work.

Not only this, but having chomped her way through my pureed vegs quite happily up to two meals a day for the last 4 to 6 weeks she is now refusing all solids for last 4 days( offered 3 times a day) and bottle or cup. Still breast feeds v. well.

She has always had frequent wakings but it seems to have been like this since Christmas.

Naps - she has two(Mainly) or three in the day but sometimes none if the day is too busy/ interesting I suppose.Timings 9am 45mins 1pm 45 - 90 mins 5pm 20mins.

Have thought about sleep training, but Jan Parker book says not before 7 mo. - why? Anecdotally have heard it used earlier, but not sure with so many wakings.
Biggest sleep clue for her so far is me I think, despite efforts to avoid this.DH can no longer settle her- he used to be able until v.recently sing her to sleep.

Am getting quite anxious re return to work for all above reasons. Any advice gratefully received.

Scout from what you write, I do wonder what is going on with her.... have there been any changes in your life, new stress for example ? She is clearly unsettled... Besides the sleep problem,I am wondering why she isn't eating anymmore....
Is she happy during the day ?
Have you read the CLLB ?

Scout, it sounds a little wearing. Around 6-7 months babies work out that they are not part of you and are a separate being which leaves them a bit flumuxed.

I was at a loss when ds, normally a contented little chap (can offer you no advice on Gina Ford) who was quite happily chomping away on solids, having a bit of breast and noticing the world outside, turned into Mr Moany. He would drink from a cup but not take solids from a spoon (I think he just wanted to be able enough to do it himself). I remember pureeing his food and making it into a milky soup and he was quite happy with that for a few days. I had done controlled crying prior to this and they had had a positive impact for all of us.

However, I did feel that this was a different stage and leaving him to cry would not have got us anywhere. Had a go with the cranial osteopath for good measure.